John Glusman, who has served as v-p and editor-in-chief of W.W. Norton since 2011, will relinquish his position as editor-in-chief in July to become executive editor. Dan Gerstle, who joined Norton’s Liveright imprint as a senior editor in 2018, is moving to the Norton trade group to succeed Glusman as editor-in-chief.
“This change, coming at a time when Norton is celebrating its centenary year, underscores the shift that is essential to the continuity and well-being of our independent, employee-owned firm,” Norton chairman and president Julia Reidhead said in a statement. Brendan Curry, the director of Norton's trade group, added: “As John returns to full-time editing, we sought a leader who understands Norton’s mission from the inside, who knows what makes our editors so special, and who will lead that impressive group to acquire books that further Norton’s long tradition of publishing works that offer striking new ideas and arguments, original research, artistry, and imagination.” Of Gerstle, he said: “His fresh and distinctive entrepreneurial approach to acquisitions and editing will continue while he manages the accomplished group of editors that John has led so ably.”
Glusman, the company said in a statement, “has had at least one book—and often two or more simultaneously—on the New York Times bestseller list for approximately 200 weeks” over his nearly 12 years at Norton. Big books edited by Glusman during that time include Richard Powers's The Overstory, Neil deGrasse Tyson's Astrophysics for People in a Hurry. Under his leadership, Norton also published works by such authors as Ronan Farrow, Saidiya Hartman, David Rohde, Frans de Waal, and Edward White.
Glusman's career in publishing has led him through many of the major imprints of distinction. Prior to Norton, Glusman was an executive editor at Crown; FSG, where he was executive v-p and editor-in-chief from 2002-2004; Collier Books, as executive editor, from 1986-1989, where he founded the Collier Fiction trade paperback series; Washington Square Press, where he was editor-in-chief; and, in the beginning of his career, Random House and Vintage Books, where he went on to relaunch the Modern Library. Authors he has edited include Nobel laureates Peter Handke, Czesław Miłosz, Orhan Pamuk, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and such wide-ranging bestselling authors as John Banville, Saul Bellow, Joan Didion, Graham Greene, Alice Hoffman, Erik Larssen, E. Annie Proulx, Paul Theroux, and William T. Vollmann.
“It has been very gratifying to look across all of Norton’s imprints at the talent that is cultivated here every day, on every level. One cannot help but be inspired with optimism for the future,” Glusman said in a statement. “I am delighted to see Dan step into his new role, where he will continue to be energized by the work that’s taking place around him.”
Among the books edited by Gerstle are Matthew Ball's The Metaverse, Fintan O’Toole's We Don't Know Ourselves, Seth Wickersham's It’s Better to Be Feared, all bestsellers, and the Pulitzer Prize–winning Covered with Night by Nicole Eustace, and he has edited works by authors including Merve Emre, Adam Gopnik, Kerri Greenidge, Elizabeth Hinton.
Gerstle came to Liveright from Basic Books, where he served most recently as senior editor from 2015 to 2018, and began acquiring books in 2013. Before joining Basic Books, he was assistant editor at FSG from 2012 to 2013. He started his career at FSG's Hill and Wang imprint in 2011.
