Gottlieb died Wednesday of natural causes at a New York hospital, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group announced. Caro, who had worked for decades with Gottlieb on his Lyndon Johnson biographies and was featured with him last year in the documentary Turn Every Page, said in a statement that he had never worked with an editor so attuned to the writing process.

From the day 52 years ago that we first looked at my pages together, Bob understood what I was trying to do and made it possible for me to take the time, and do the work, I needed to do, Caro said in a statement. People talk to me about some of the triumphant moments Bob and I shared, but today I remember other moments, tough ones, and I remember how Bob was always, always, for half a century, there for me. He was a great friend, and today I mourn my friend with all my heart.

Tall and assured, with wavy dark hair and dark-rimmed glasses, Gottlieb had one of the greatest runs of any editor after World War II and helped shape the modern publishing canon. His credits included fiction by future Nobel laureates Morrison,Doris Lessing and V.S. Naipaul; spy novels by John le Carré, essays by Nora Ephron, science thrillers by Michael Crichton and Caros nonfiction epics. He also edited memoirs by Katharine Hepburn, Lauren Bacall and Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham, whose Personal History won a Pulitzer. Gottlieb so impressed Bill Clinton that the former president signed with Alfred A. Knopf in part for the chance to work with Gottlieb on his memoir My Life.

Uniquely well-read and unstuffy, he was the rare soul who would claim to have finished War and Peace in a single weekend (some reports narrowed it to a single day) and also collected plastic handbags that filled shelves above his bed. Gottlieb was as open to Miss Piggys Guide to Life as he was to the works of Chaim Potok. On his desk for decades was a bronze paperweight, given to him when he started in publishing, etched with the words GIVE THE READER A BREAK.

Gottliebs reputation was made during his time as editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster and later Alfred A. Knopf, where in recent years he worked as an editor-at-large. But he also edited The New Yorker for five years before departing over conceptual differences with publisher S.I. Newhouse and was himself an accomplished prose stylist. He wrote dance criticism for The New York Observer and book reviews for The New York Times. He wrote a short biography of George Balanchine, co-authored A Certain Style: The Art of the Plastic Handbag, 1949-59, and edited well-regarded anthologies of jazz criticism and 20th century song lyrics. His memoir, Avid Reader, came out in 2016.

He was married twice, the second time to actor Maria Tucci, and had three children. He was otherwise so absorbed in work he was looking over early proofs of a Cynthia Ozick book while counting contractions for his pregnant wife that the author Thomas Mallon summed up his life as a busmans holiday without any brakes.

In Turn Every Page, a joint biography of Caro and Gottlieb directed by the editors daughter, Lizzie Gottlieb, Robert Gottlieb referred to editing as a service job. He would remind himself that the books he pored over were not his own, while also maintaining the ideal editor-writer relationship was an equivalence of strength, in which each shared the best of their talents.

I am not egoless, he acknowledged to his daughter.

Caro is still writing his fifth and presumed final volume of the Johnson biographies, a series begun nearly 50 years ago. A Knopf Doubleday spokesperson would not comment on who might serve as its editor.

Born and raised in Manhattan, Gottlieb would say he was born with extra drive. He was a lifelong bookworm who recalled taking out up to four novels a day from his local public library. As a teenager, he would visit the library at Columbia University, looking up old copies of Publishers Weekly and studying the bestseller lists.

He eventually attended Columbia, from which he graduated in 1952. After studying two years in England, at Cambridge University, and working briefly in theater, Gottlieb joined Simon & Schuster in 1955 as an editorial assistant, an upstart claiming he took the job to support his wife and child but also so confident that even then he regarded himself as a better reader than anybody else, he recalled in the documentary.

In the memoir Another Life, fellow Simon & Schuster editor Michael Korda would describe the young Gottlieb as resembling one of those penniless perpetual students in Russian novels, his glasses so smeared that Korda was amazed he could see. Through the unwiped lenses, Korda noticed eyes that were shrewd and intense, but with a certain kindly humorous sparkle.

Within two years, he had taken on a former World War II pilot named Joseph Heller and his partially written novel about the war titled Catch-18. As Heller later recalled, he wanted an open mind to handle his shocking satire and had been told by his agent that Gottlieb was known for being receptive to innovation. Gottlieb convinced skeptical executives at Simon & Schuster to give the novel a chance.

The funny parts are wildly funny, the serious parts are excellent, he told the editorial board.

Gottlieb paid $1,500 for the novel, $750 upon signing Heller, $750 after publication. He also made some broad suggestions, including changing the title to Catch-22, to avoid confusion with Leon Uris Mila 18. Released in 1961 to an initially mild response, the book caught on after another Gottlieb author, humorist S.J. Perelman, recommended it to a New York Herald Tribune critic. Catch-22 eventually became a blockbuster and counterculture touchstone, and Gottlieb became a literary celebrity most closely associated with Hellers novel among the kind of people who think about such things, Gottlieb wrote in his memoir.

But in the years that followed its publication, I more or less put it out of my mind, he added. I certainly never re-read it. I was afraid I wouldnt love it as much as I once had.

Success only accelerated his drive. He signed up such rising authors as Edna OBrien,Mordecai Richler and Len Deighton and was hip enough to acquire John Lennons collection of verse, vignettes and drawings, In His Own Write. He later worked with Bob Dylan on a book of his lyrics and was amazed to find that this genius rebel and superstar was almost childlike you felt he barely knew how to tie his shoes, let alone write a check.

Gottlieb had some letdowns, rejecting Larry McMurtrys Lonesome Dove and struggling with John Kennedy Tooles A Confederacy of Dunces. Toole submitted the novel in the early 1960s to a positive response from Gottlieb, who also suggested numerous revisions. For two years, Toole kept making changes and Gottlieb kept asking for more, telling the author that there must be a point to everything in the book, a real point, not just amusingness thats forced to figure itself out.

Gottlieb finally gave up, and Toole eventually killed himself, in 1969. A decade later, his mother helped get Confederacy published by Louisiana State University to public acclaim, the Pulitzer Prize and lasting affection, the kind of fate Gottliebs other authors often enjoyed.

Gottliebs other successes he had so many included Charles Portis True Grit, Potoks The Chosen and a Pulitzer Prize-winning anthology of John Cheevers short stories, compiled by Gottlieb over the authors misgivings. At The New Yorker, which he edited from 1987-1992, Gottlieb published short fiction by Denis Johnson that later became the acclaimed Jesus Son.

He was otherwise known for introducing a more informal style to the venerable magazine including a willingness to let the occasional four-letter word appear in print.

An acknowledged workaholic, Gottlieb was also the most personal of editors. When Ephrons marriage to Carl Bernstein broke up, she and her children stayed for a few months with Gottlieb. He not only called male writers dear boy, but eyed every line of such marathons as The Power Broker, for which Gottlieb and Caro spent several contentious weeks side by side cutting some 300,000 words from a manuscript that originally topped 1 million and still ended up at more than 1,200 pages. They might argue fiercely over the usage of semicolons (Caro favored them; Gottlieb did not) but agreed on Caros ambition to write a definitive account of the imperious municipal builder Robert Moses.

You dont take on books with which you do not have a sympathy, Gottlieb told The Guardian in 2016. Only trouble can arise if instead of wanting to make a book that you like even better than it is, you want to change it into something that it isnt.

Gottlieb was equally exacting after signing up a young medical student named Michael Crichton and his novel, The Andromeda Strain. He loved Crichtons story of a deadly virus, but wanted more plot and factual details and less character development.

He would call me up and say, Dear boy! I have read your manuscript, and here is what you have to do, Crichton told The Paris Review in 1994. And he was not above saying, I dont know if you can do it this way, I dont know if youre up to it, which of course would drive me into a fury of effort. It was very effective.

The 45-year-old mayor, the only Hispanic candidate in the race, declared his candidacy with the Federal Election Commission. He had teased an announcement, noting that he would be making a big speech Thursday at the Reagan Library in California.

Before Trump arrived at the courthouse Tuesday, Suarez toured the media encampment wearing a T-shirt with a police logo, as his citys police force had jurisdiction over the downtown area.

If I do decide to run, he told CNN, its starting a new chapter, a new conversation of a new kind of leader who maybe looks a little different, speaks a little different, had a little bit of a different experience, but can inspire people.

Suarez, the president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, is the son of Miamis first Cuban-born mayor. He has gained national attention in recent years for his efforts to lure companies to Miami, with an eye toward turning the city into a crypto hub and the next Silicon Valley.

Suarez, who is vying to become the first sitting mayor elected president, joins a GOP primary fight that includes Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Despite having a candidate field in the double digits, the race is largely seen as a two-person contest between Trump and DeSantis.

But the other competitors are hoping for an opening, which Trump has provided with his myriad legal vulnerabilities none more serious than his federal indictment on charges of mishandling sensitive documents and refusing to give them back. He pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Miami federal court to 37 felony counts.

Suarez has said he didnt support Trump in either the 2016 or 2020 presidential elections, instead writing in the names of U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and then-Vice President Pence. In 2018, Suarez publicly condemned Trump after reports came out that he had questioned why the United States would accept more immigrants from Haiti and shithole countries in Africa.

But times have changed, with Trump advisers now praising Suarezs work and helping him promote what he calls the Miami success story. Trumps former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway has even floated Suarezs name as a possible vice presidential pick.

Suarez, who is married with two young children, is a corporate and real estate attorney who previously served as a city of Miami commissioner. He has also positioned himself as someone who can help the party further connect with Hispanics. In recent months, he has made visits to early GOP voting states as he weighed a possible 2024 campaign.

He is more moderate than DeSantis and Trump, but has threaded the needle carefully on cultural issues that have become popular among GOP politicians.

Suarez has been critical of DeSantis, dismissing some of the state laws he has signed on immigration as headline grabbers lacking in substance. He has said immigration is an issue that screams for a national solution at a time when many Republicans back hard-line policies.

The two-term mayor previously expressed support for a Florida law championed by DeSantis and dubbed Dont Say Gay that bans classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, but he has not specified whether he supported the expansion of the policy to all grades. Like other Republicans, Suarez has criticized DeSantis feud with Disney over the same law, saying it looks like a personal vendetta.

Further ingratiating himself with the Trump team, Suarez has echoed Trumps attacks on DeSantis demeanor, saying the governor doesnt make eye contact and struggles with personal relationships with other politicians.

In 2020, the mayor made a play to attract tech companies to Florida after the state relaxed its COVID-19 restrictions. He met with Big Tech players and investors such as PayPal founder Peter Thiel and tech magnate Marcelo Claure, began appearing on national television and was profiled by magazines.

Suarez, who has said he takes his salary in Bitcoin, has also hosted Bitcoin conferences and started heavily promoting a cryptocurrency project named Miami Coin, created by a group called City Coins.

But the hype dissipated as virus restrictions eased elsewhere, eliminating Miamis advantage on the COVID-19 front. Suarezs vision also hit roadblocks with the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which was set to move its U.S. headquarters to Miamis financial district before its founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas last December.

The only cryptocurrency exchange that traded Miami Coin suspended its trading, citing liquidity problems, not living up to its promise to generate enough money to eliminate city taxes.

Miami also ranks among the worst big U.S. cities for income inequality and has one of the least affordable housing markets.

The fire was first reported Tuesday afternoon at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa, Hillsborough County Fire Rescue spokesperson Rob Herrin said. The American Kennel Club All-Breed Dog Show was scheduled to begin Wednesday at the fairgrounds and run through the weekend.

Bystanders reported seeing smoke coming from the RVs vents and then attempted to get inside the car, but couldnt because of the flames and smoke, Herrin said. After firefighters extinguished the blaze, the RV owners told investigators that five boxers had been inside the vehicle.

No humans were injured, officials said.

Investigators believe the fire was an accident, but theyre still narrowing down a specific cause, Herrin said.

Theres a substantial amount of commercial real estate in the banking system, a large part of it is in smaller banks, Powell told reporters on Wednesday. To the extent that its well distributed, then the system could take losses. We do expect that there will be losses, but there will be banks that have concentrations, and those banks will experience larger losses. So were well aware of that, were monitoring it carefully. 

Estimates surrounding how much of commercial real estate debt is concentrated within small banks varies, but Goldman Sachs previously suggested that lenders with less than $250 billion in assets account for roughly 80% of commercial real estate loans. Following the bank failures, the focus seemed to shift to commercial real estate, and the sectors relationship with banks. Afterall, commercial real estate made up 45% of the loan portfolios at Signature Bank, which went under on the heels of Silicon Valley Banks collapse. Still, Powell seemed to think the risk is contained, at least for now. 

It feels like something that will be around for some time, as opposed to something that will suddenly hit and work its way to systemic risk, Powell said, after stressing that the Fed is aware of the situation and monitoring it closely. Powell later said if conditions tighten enough, that could be factored into the Feds rate decisions moving forward. 

Everything thats happening with commercial real estate is because the sector is vulnerable to high inflation and high interest rates, particularly because its largely built on debt. So it has become more difficult and expensive for borrowers to get a loan or refinance an existing loan once it matures. As Fortunes previously reported, the current environment of higher interest rates coupled with tighter lending standards (following the bank failures), will likely result in an increase in delinquencies and defaults. 

However, while there are sub-sectors within commercial real estate that seem to be holding steady (like industrial and multifamily), the office space is the most at risk. Thats because of the lack of demand following the shift to working from home. As Fortunes previously reported, one commercial real estate executive called whats happening in the office sector apocalyptical, claiming that its already crashing.   

Along the same lines, and in a similar apocalyptic fashion, Morgan Stanley analysts forecast a peak-to-trough CRE price decline of as much as 40%, worse than in the Great Financial Crisis. Meanwhile, analysts with Goldman Sachs and UBS, tend to suggest that the risk ahead is largely limited to the office sector as it faces rising vacancy rates and falling property values.