Ted Solotaroff

Theodore "Ted" Solotaroff (October 9, 1928 – August 8, 2008) was an American writer, editor and literary critic. As a book editor, he helped shape the works of several prominent authors. He also founded the literary journal, New American Review. He then attended the University of Michigan, where he was on the freshman basketball team, and earned a BA in English in 1952. Solotaroff's essay, published in November 1959, was noticed by Norman Podhoretz of Commentary magazine. In 1960 he hired Solotaroff (who never completed his doctoral dissertation) as an associate editor.

After American Review folded in 1977, Solotaroff became a book editor at Harper & Row. He edited manuscripts by authors such as Russell Banks, Sue Miller, Robert Bly, and Bobbie Ann Mason. In a statement following Solotaroff's death, Mason called him "one of the last of the great editors" and someone who "cared about every line".

In his last decade, Solotaroff published two memoirs. The award-winning Truth Comes in Blows (1998) "described a sad, blue-collar American childhood, bracketed by the Depression and World War II; a fractured Jewish world that mirrored the breach between him and his father." His follow-up volume, First Loves (2003), chronicled his courtship and marriage to Lynn Ringler in 1950s post-war America.

Death On August 8, 2008, Ted Solotaroff died at his home in East Quogue, New York of complications from pneumonia.

Awards 1999 PEN/Martha Albrand Award for the Art of the Memoir for Truth Comes in Blows.