Carol Houck Smith, Editor, 1923-2008

December 12, 2008

I just found out that Carol Houck Smith passed away! Carol was 85 (!) and an editor at WW Norton where I worked (and continue to do freelance for) in NYC. Little did I know that she officially retired in 1996, but, according to the Washington Post she still showed up to work at Norton every day. I had no idea.

I remember one day I was xeroxing some work for the editor I was assisting and Carol was waiting to xerox a story by Brady Udall. It was called “The Wig” (i’ve posted about it here at least twice) and at the time I had never read it. Udall’s novel had just come out and Carol and I chatted about it and about the story she had in her hand. I finished my xeroxing and went back to my office and a few minutes later Carol came to me with an extra xerox of “The Wig” and Udall’s book, The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint.

“For you,” She said. “I guarantee you’ll love it.”

I did. And i’ve been a fan of Udall ever since. But also a fan of Carol Houck Smith. Who would often chat me up in the hallway at Norton.

She was energetic and kind and had such enthusiasm about young writers. Carol worked at Norton for 60 years. She edited Rita Dove, Stanley Kunitz, Andrea Barrett among many others.

The best advice to beginning writers, she said in a 2004 washingtonpost.com online chat, is “to be a reader. To become a voracious reader. And to learn to read with your ears as well as your eyes. To read your own work aloud. And even to type out a passage from a writer you love, to really get the rhythm.”

(photo courtesy of Washington Post.com)

She was an advocate for writers and a dear, dear soul.