Orville Prescott (September 8, 1906, Cleveland, Ohio – April 28, 1996,

New Canaan, Connecticut New Canaan () is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 20,622 according to the 2020 census. About an hour from Manhattan by train, the town is considered part of Connecticut's Gold Coast. The town is bound ...

) was the main

book reviewer __NOTOC__ A book review is a form of literary criticism in which a book is merely described (summary review) or analyzed based on content, style, and merit. A book review may be a primary source, opinion piece, summary review or scholarly revie ...

for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' for 24 years. Born in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

, Prescott graduated from

Williams College Williams College is a private liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a colonist from the Province of Massachusetts Bay who was kill ...

in 1930. He began his career as a researcher for ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...

'', then known as ''News-Week'', and became the literary editor of ''

Cue Magazine Cue or CUE may refer to: Event markers * Sensory cue, in perception (experimental psychology) *Cue (theatrical), the trigger for an action to be carried out at a specific time, in theatre or film *Cue (show control), the electronic rendering of th ...

'' before joining the ''Times'', where he wrote three or four book reviews every week from 1942 through 1966. More than any other reviewer, he influenced sales of books across the country, and was held in high esteem. His reviews showed a preference for traditional novels with strong narratives and clear characterizations. In 1958 he reviewed '' Lolita'' by

Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bor ...

and described it as "dull, dull, dull in a pretentious, florid and archly fatuous fashion." In 1961,

Gore Vidal Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit, erudition, and patrician manner. Vidal was bisexual, and in his novels and e ...

wrote a scathing portrait of Prescott as a reviewer. Vidal later wrote that Prescott was so offended by his depiction of a homosexual love affair in ''

The City and the Pillar ''The City and the Pillar'' is the third published novel by American writer Gore Vidal, written in 1946 and published on January 10, 1948. The story is about a young man who is coming of age and discovers his own homosexuality. ''The City and ...

'' that he refused to review his work or allow the ''Times'' to review it. Prescott edited three anthologies about history and after his retirement wrote two books about the

Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the trans ...

.''

''
Mel Gussow, "Orville Prescott, Times Book Critic for 24 Years, Dies at 89", April 30, 1996
accessed July 12, 2011

Works

*''In My Opinion: An Inquiry into the Contemporary Novel'' (1952) *''The Five Dollar Gold Piece: The Development of a Point of View'' (1956) * ''Robin Hood: The Outlaw of Sherwood Forest'', illustrated by Charles Beck (1959) – children's

picture book A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images ...

, * ''Undying Past'' (1961) * ''A Father Reads to His Children: An Anthology of Prose and Poetry'' (1965) *''Princes of the Renaissance: A Chronicle of the Private Lives and Public Careers of the Kings, Dukes, Popes and Despots Who Ruled Italy in the Fifteenth Century'' (1969) *''History as Literature'' (1971) * ''Lords of Italy: Portraits from the Middle Ages'' (1972) *''Mid-Century: An Anthology of Distinguished Contemporary American Short Stories'' (1973)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Prescott, Orville 1906 births 1996 deaths American literary critics Critics employed by The New York Times 20th-century American non-fiction writers