Robert B. Silvers

Robert B. Silvers
Silvers at the National Book Critics Circle Awards in March 2012
Born	Robert Benjamin Silvers (1929-12-31) December 31, 1929 (age 87) Mineola, New York
Education	University of Chicago, 1947
Occupation	Editor
Notable work	The New York Review of Books

Robert Benjamin Silvers (born December 31, 1929) is an American editor who has served as editor of The New York Review of Books since 1963.

Raised in Long Island, New York, Silvers graduated from the University of Chicago in 1947 and attended Yale Law School, but he left before graduating and worked as press secretary to Chester Bowles in 1950. He was sent by the Army to Paris in 1952 as a speechwriter and press aide, while finishing his education at the Sorbonne and Sciences Po. He soon joined the The Paris Review as an editor under the guidance of George Plimpton. From 1959 to 1963, he was an associate editor of Harper's Magazine in New York.

Silvers was co-editor of the Review with Barbara Epstein for over 40 years until her death in 2006 and has been the sole editor of the magazine since then. "Like a chemist pairing ingredients to induce a specific reaction, Silvers has built his career matching the right author and subject, in hopes of generating an exciting and illuminating result." Silvers has edited or co-edited several essay anthologies and supervises the Review's book publishing arm, New York Review Books. He appears prominently in the 2014 documentary film about the Review, The 50 Year Argument.

Among other awards and honorary degrees, he has received the National Book Foundation's Literarian Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Award for "Distinguished Service to the Arts", the Ivan Sandrof Award for Lifetime Achievement in Publishing and a National Humanities Medal. Among other honors, he is a Chevalier of the French Légion d’honneur and a member of the French Ordre National du Mérite.