Congdon & Weed

Thomas Boss Congdon Jr. (March 17, 1931 – December 23, 2008) was an American book editor who worked on Russell Baker's memoir Growing Up, Peter Benchley's bestselling novel Jaws, and David Halberstam's 1986 work The Reckoning, ultimately establishing his own publishing house.

Congdon was born on March 17, 1931 in New London, Connecticut and later earned a degree from Yale University. He dropped out of Yale during his sophomore year to work on a gold mine in Fairbanks, Alaska. He served in the United States Navy on the battleships USS Iowa (BB-61) and USS Wisconsin (BB-64). He attended Columbia University, where he studied journalism.

Congdon became an editor at The Saturday Evening Post, where he worked for 12 years. In 1968, he took his first position in book publishing at Harper & Row, and was hired by Doubleday in 1971.

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. Congdon asked if he had any ideas for fiction, and Benchley respond with his idea of a novel about a great white shark terrorizing a beach resort. Congdon offered Benchley an advance of $1,000, leading to the novelist submitting the first 100 pages. After extensive rewriting based on Congdon's guidance, Jaws was published in 1974 and stayed on the bestseller list for some 44 weeks.

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