Jonathan Galassi (born 1949 in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...

, Washington) has served as the president and publisher of ''

Farrar, Straus and Giroux Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger Williams Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar. FSG is known for publishing literary books, and its authors have won numerous awards, including Pulitzer ...

'' and is currently the Chairman and Executive Editor.

Early life

Galassi was born in Seattle (his father worked as an attorney for the Justice Department), but he grew up in Plympton, Massachusetts. He attended

Phillips Exeter Academy (not for oneself) la, Finis Origine Pendet (The End Depends Upon the Beginning) gr, Χάριτι Θεοῦ (By the Grace of God) , location = 20 Main Street , city = Exeter, New Hampshire , zipcode ...

, where he became interested in poetry, writing and literature. He attended

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher ...

, where he studied English with instructors including

Robert Lowell Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV (; March 1, 1917 – September 12, 1977) was an American poet. He was born into a Boston Brahmin family that could trace its origins back to the '' Mayflower''. His family, past and present, were important subjects ...

and

Elizabeth Bishop Elizabeth Bishop (February 8, 1911 – October 6, 1979) was an American poet and short-story writer. She was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1949 to 1950, the Pulitzer Prize winner for Poetry in 1956, the National Book Awar ...

, and served as an editor of the ''Harvard Lampoon'' and the president of the ''Harvard Advocate''. He graduated in 1971, then became a

Marshall Scholar The Marshall Scholarship is a postgraduate scholarship for "intellectually distinguished young Americans ndtheir country's future leaders" to study at any university in the United Kingdom. It is widely considered one of the most prestigious ...

at Christ's College,

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

. He realized while attending Christ’s College that he wanted a career in book publishing.

Career

Galassi began his publishing career as an editorial intern at

Houghton Mifflin The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

in Boston in 1973. He moved to

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

in New York, and then in 1986 to Farrar, Straus & Giroux (FSG), after being fired from

. Two years later, he was named editor-in-chief, and served as the president and publisher at FSG until 2018.Profile: ''Harvard Magazine'' > ''Editor Extraordinaire Jonathan Galassi on the Risky Art of Publishing Books''
/ref> He was succeeded as Publisher by Mitzi Angel in 2018, and Angel was named President in 2021. Galassi is currently the Chairman and Executive Editor. Galassi is also a translator of poetry and a poet himself. He has translated and published the poetic works of the Italian poets

Giacomo Leopardi Count Giacomo Taldegardo Francesco di Sales Saverio Pietro Leopardi (, ; 29 June 1798 – 14 June 1837) was an Italian philosopher, poet, essayist, and philologist. He is considered the greatest Italian poet of the nineteenth century and one of ...

and

Eugenio Montale Eugenio Montale (; 12 October 1896 – 12 September 1981) was an Italian poet, prose writer, editor and translator, and recipient of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Literature. Life and works Early years Montale was born in Genoa. His family were che ...

. His honors as a poet include a 1989

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the art ...

, and his activities include having been poetry editor for ''The Paris Review'' for ten years, and being an honorary chairman of the

Academy of American Poets The Academy of American Poets is a national, member-supported organization that promotes poets and the art of poetry. The nonprofit organization was incorporated in the state of New York in 1934. It fosters the readership of poetry through outreach ...

. He has published poems in literary journals and magazines including ''Threepenny Review,'' ''The New Yorker, The Nation'' and the Poetry Foundation website. He is also a trustee at his alma mater Exeter.

Personal life

Galassi lives in Brooklyn. He was married to Susan Grace, with whom he has two daughters. The couple divorced in late 2011. He is gay.

Bibliography

Poetry

Collections

* ''Morning Run: Poems'' (Paris Review Editions/British American Pub., 1988) * ''North Street: Poems'' (HarperCollins Publishers, 2000) *

Translations

* ''The Second Life of Art: Selected Essays of Eugenio Montale'' (Ecco Press, 1982) * ''Otherwise: Last and First Poems of Eugenio Montale'' (Vintage Books, 1984) * ''Collected poems, 1920-1954: Eugenio Montale'' (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1998) * ''A Boy Named Giotto by Paolo Guarnieri'' (pictures by Bimba Landmann; Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1999) * ''Selected Poems of Eugenio Montale'' (translated by Jonathan Galassi, Charles Wright, and David Young; edited with an introduction by David Young; Oberlin College Press, 2004) * '' Canti'' by Giacomo Leopardi (translated and annotated by Jonathan Galassi; Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2010)

List of poems

Novels

* ''Muse'' (Knopf, 2015) * ''School Days: a Novel'' (Other Press, 2022)

Sources

Library of Congress Online Catalog > Jonathan Galassi

References

External links

Video Interview: ''Charlie Rose'' > February 19, 1999 > ''A Conversation with Editor Jonathan Galassi''

Interview: ''Poets & Writers'' > July 1, 2009 > ''Agents & Editors: A Q&A with Jonathan Galassi'' by Jofie Ferrari-Adler

Poem: ''The Nation'' > September 27, 2000 > ''Bequest'' by Jonathan Galassi

Poem: ''The New Yorker'' > April 20, 2009 > ''Lunch Poem for F.S.'' by Jonathan Galassi

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20110604020451/http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~rhill/Cynthia/articles/Serious_Years.html Review: A Review by Cynthia Haven of ''North Street'' by Jonathan Galassi* Jonathan Galassi Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. {{DEFAULTSORT:Galassi, Jonathan 1949 births Living people American publishers (people) American male poets American translators American book editors Harvard College alumni Marshall Scholars Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge Writers from Seattle Poets from New York (state) The New Yorker people American LGBT poets Harvard Advocate alumni The Harvard Lampoon alumni Phillips Exeter Academy alumni