Noshing With Charles Scribner III – November 16, 2023

Ira's Everything Bagel

Author, Scribners: Five Generations in Publishing

This week, Ira spoke with Charles Scribner III, author of Scribners: Five Generations in Publishing. In this generational episode of “Ira’s Everything Bagel,” Charles talks about why he wrote the book; how he wrote it in one month; why it’s not a comprehensive history, but a family historical memoir; how his father was his greatest teacher; his father’s relationship with Ernest Hemingway; how books affect lives; why Max Perkins was the greatest editor of the 20^th century; and the future of books.

Charles Scribner III received his PhD in art history from Princeton University in 1977. He taught Baroque art in Princeton’s department of Art and Archaeology, where he later served on its advisory council, and joined his father at the family publishing house, Charles Scribner’s Sons. With Talleyrand as his model, he remained at Scribners through three changes in ownership (Macmillan, Maxwell, and Viacom), overseeing the publication of its literary classics. He was a commentator for television documentaries on Edith Wharton (BBC/PBS), Fitzgerald, and Hemingway (A&E Biography).

As an art historian, Scribner has lectured on Baroque art at universities and museums: the Metropolitan, National Gallery, Getty, Frick, and Morgan Library. His books include The Triumph of the Eucharist: Tapestries by Rubens (1982), Rubens(1989), Bernini (1991), The Shadow of God (2006), Home by Another Route (2016), and Sacred Muse (2023). His favorite assignment was an undercover operation for U.S. Customs special agents in Miami Beach in 1991 to trap art thieves and recover a stolen Rubens oil sketch. In 2003 he appeared in the BBC/Bravo documentary “The Rubens Robbers” about the successful mission. He remains rooted to his childhood zip code in New York City.

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