Tay Hohoff

Therese von Hohoff Torrey, better known as Tay Hohoff (July 3, 1898 — January 5, 1974), was an American literary editor with the publishing firm J. B. Lippincott & Co. Strong-willed and forceful, she worked closely with author Harper Lee over the course of two years to give final shape to her classic novel To Kill A Mockingbird. After the commercial and literary success of the novel, she shielded Harper Lee from the intense pressure to write another one. She retired from a senior editorial position at the firm in 1973 and died the following year. She attended Brooklyn Friends, a Quaker school near her home. In 1919 she married Lewis Edgar Welsh (1888–after 1929), an architect and artist. They had a daughter, Anne Torrey Welsh (1922–1980) and a son, John Hallock Welsh (born 1924). The marriage ended in divorce in 1929. In 1931 she married Arthur Haviland Torrey (1894–1973), a literary agent. On June 15, 1951, her daughter, Anne Torrey Welsh, married Dr. Grady Harrison Nunn, a professor of political science at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. The Nunns named their only daughter for her grandmother: Therese von Hohoff Nunn.

Tay Hohoff was small and wiry with a deep, gravelly voice. She was a chain-smoker. She died in Manhattan.

In 1942 Tay Hohoff joined J. B. Lippincott & Co., a large and well-known American publishing company. Zelda Popkin, Wayne Greenhaw, It was a biography of John Lovejoy Elliott, a social activist and humanist in early 20th-century New York who had committed his life to helping the city's underclass. In 1973 Hohoff published a memoir, Cats and Other People. In 1975 the book was read by Gillian Neumann in audiobook format on cassette tape.

Literary editor Tay Hohoff worked closely with her authors to transform their manuscripts into critically acclaimed novels through several edits and rewrites.

Once during the long editorial process, Lee lost confidence in herself and threw her manuscript out her window and into the snow. When she called her editor in tears, Hohoff "told her to march outside immediately and pick up the pages". The commercial and critical success of the novel led to pressure on Lee to publish a second novel but Hohoff "guarded Nelle like a junkyard dog".

Jonathan Mahler of the New York Times compared the two books and praised Hohoff's large role "in reconceiving the story from a dark tale of a young woman's disillusionment with her father's racist views, to a redemptive one of moral courage and human decency". Todd Leopold of CNN wrote that "Lee's graceful, drily witty voice, at once childlike and knowing [...] isn't lost in "Watchman," but one can see the impact of having a strong editor." He concluded that "The value of a good editor cannot be overstated."