Oral history interview with Elisabeth Sifton, 2018

Biographical Note

Elisabeth Sifton (1939-2019) was a publisher, book editor, and author. Daughter of theology professors Reinhold and Ursula Niebuhr, Sifton was born in New York City. She grew up in the environs of Union Theological Seminary and attended Radcliffe College. After a brief stint with the State Department, she began her publishing career with Frederick A. Praeger in 1962. She moved to Viking Press in 1968. By the time she left in 1987, she was executive vice president of Viking Penguin and publisher of the imprint Elisabeth Sifton Books. From 1987-1992, she was executive vice president at Alfred A. Knopf. She then served as senior vice president at Farrar, Straus and, Giroux until she departed publishing in 2008. Sifton was married to Judge Charles Proctor Sifton from 1962-1984 and to historian Fritz Stern from 1996. She and Sifton had three children

Scope and Contents

Elisabeth Sifton begins the interview with a lengthy discussion growing up in the community around Union Theological Seminary. She discusses her parents Reinhold and Ursula Niebuhr, with recurrent focus on her relationship with her mother. She discusses her parents and her own views on politics, religion, civil rights, and women's rights. She recalls family friends W.H. Auden and Arthur Schlesinger. She speaks about experiences at Radcliffe College and her marriage to her first husband Charles Sifton. Sifton describes her experience at the Kennedy Administration's State Department and the Washington, DC intellectual milieu around family friend Felix Frankfurter. She discusses her entry into publishing at Frederick A. Praeger, Inc. She analyzes the personality of founder Praeger, work on nonfiction books, the workplace culture at the publishing house, and its funding from the Central Intelligence Agency. She also discusses working on art books with an extended anecdote about a book on the Libyan archeological site Leptis Magna and her visit decades later. Sifton also discusses her work at Viking Press at length, including work with Saul Bellow and Peter Matthiessen. She speaks about the lawsuit surrounding Matthiessen's In the Spirit of Crazy Horse She also discusses the impacts of Viking's acquisition by Pearson Longman, Viking colleagues such as Alan Williams and Corlies (Cork) Smith, the general impact of Wall Street involvement in publishing from the 1970s. She describes being recruited to Alfred A. Knopf by Sonny Mehta; her career trajectory there and at Farrar, Straus, and Giroux; the influence of Roger Straus; her work with the Hillman and Wang imprint; and her departure from FSG in 2008. She also shares brief impressions of many authors with whom she worked

Subjects

• Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
• Authors, American--20th century.
• Book editors.
• Dziedzic, Sarah, interviewer.
• Editors--Interviews.
• Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
• Frederick A. Praeger, Inc.
• Interviews.
• Niebuhr, Reinhold, 1892-1971.
• Niebuhr, Ursula.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Publishers and publishing.
• Sifton, Elisabeth--Interviews.
• Strong, Liz, interviewer.
• Union Theological Seminary (New York, N.Y.)
• United States. Department of State.
• Viking Press.

Access Conditions

Copyright by Elisabeth Sifton. The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York hold a non-exclusive license to enable library activities