“Escapism sold books, to be sure, but not nearly as many as were sold by exposing America’s flaws and making the average American reader (and book club member) look closely at his or her most cherished social assumptions. Americans might not be eager to accept integration, feminism, homosexuality, juvenile delinquency, and the drug culture– or to shoulder the blame for the existence of these problems– but they were certainly willing to read about them.”

English-born writer and novelist

Michael Korda is an English-born writer and novelist who became editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster in New York City. He worked in book publishing as well as in fiction, bringing together editorial experience and a literary career. He is known for his writing and for his leadership at one of the major American publishing houses. His public voice comes from both sides of that work, as an editor shaping books and as an author writing them.