Thomas Congdon

Thomas Boss Congdon Jr. (March 17, 1931 – December 23, 2008) was an American book editor. He worked on Russell Baker's memoir Growing Up, Peter Benchley's bestselling novel Jaws, and David Halberstam's 1986 work The Reckoning, as well as the infamous Michelle Remembers, an unreliable account of child abuse that contributed to the Satanic panic. He ultimately establishing his own publishing house.

Early life, family and education Congdon was born on March 17, 1931, in New London, Connecticut. He had a brother and sister.

He attended Yale College While in the Navy, he served on the battleships and . He subsequently attended Columbia University, where he studied journalism.

At Doubleday, Congdon had read a number of articles written by Peter Benchley and invited Benchley to lunch to discuss some ideas for books. Benchley wanted to write a non-fiction book about pirates, but Congdon wasn't interested. After extensive rewriting based on Congdon's guidance, Jaws was published in 1974 and stayed on the bestseller list for some 44 weeks.

In April 1974, Congdon was named as editor-in-chief of adult trade books at E. P. Dutton.

He worked with author A. Scott Berg, who was writing a book about Maxwell Perkins. Congdon reviewed Berg's original manuscripts, which had been written in the varying styles of several notable authors, and finally circled a paragraph that he felt captured what he was looking for, saying "You know who this sounds like? Nobody. Write the whole book like this. That's your voice." The published book, Maxwell Perkins: Editor of Genius, won the 1980 National Book Award. During that period, he published Michelle Remembers. Written by psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder, the book is widely considered as an unreliable story of ritual abuse story that contributed to the satanic panic of the 1980s. Congdon & Lattès (later known as Congdon & Weed) went bankrupt in 1985. Congdon edited books for other publishers, editing David Halberstam's The Reckoning published in 1986 by William Morrow and Company.

Personal life and demise

Congdon was married for fifty years. He and his wife Constance had two daughters and three granddaughters.

He died at age 77 on December 23, 2008, at his home in Nantucket, Massachusetts, due to congestive heart failure and Parkinson's disease.