Robert Caro autograph

January 11, 2024

From Liz Danzico:

On stage at Radio City Music Hall, I hid The Power Broker. All 1,200+ pages of it. I clutched the paperback close, under my academic regalia. On stage, helping deliver diplomas to eager graduating students at SVA, I sat behind the unmatched Robert Caro himself during a not-brief graduation ceremony where he would deliver the final Commencement address. I would ask him to sign the hidden book afterward as we walked offstage.

Her attempt to obtain an autograph proved unsuccessful. Jason Kottke has written about him a number of times and yet the story here only serves to further illustrate the enduring aura behind the man. I have yet to read any of his works, but I feel as if I have absorbed him. His work ethic. His style of repetition (see Waste Need Not Waste by Frank Chimero). But above all else, relentless. If ever I feel stuck, as I often do, I think back to the advice he received from his editor Alan Hathway to “turn every page”. New Yorker, via Kottke:

Alan looked at me for what I remember as a very long time. “Just remember,” he said. “Turn every page. Never assume anything. Turn every goddam page.” He turned to some other papers on his desk, and after a while I got up and left.