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Ross Claiborne
What contributes to a person's success? For Ross Claiborne it was the stability, love, attention, and discipline received as a child from his mother’s sister and her husband that provided the emotional ladder to the pinnacle of New York book publishing.
Ross’s early years were spent in a single-parent home in Baltimore, with a mother who died of cancer when he was only two and a father--successful dentist and avid theatergoer--who suffered the ill effects of being gassed during World War I. Eventually, by the age of ten--his father unable to care for him--he was sent to live with his mother’s sister and husband, outside of Philadelphia. “I responded tremendously to the stability that my aunt and uncle provided. Suddenly, dinners were on time and I was living the life that all my friends had. They showered me with love and attention, and the best schooling and discipline--something I didn’t have living with my father.”
As a book publisher, Ross worked with Irwin Shaw, James Jones, Joseph Wambaugh, James Clavell, William Goldman, among many others. He attributes his ambition and competitiveness in the publishing world to his uncle, a very successful stockbroker in Philadelphia and an avid sportsman. “We would play catch and he built a basketball court, but I wasn’t really good at any of them. But I did become a halfway decent tennis player. My uncle’s personality did light the sparks of ambition and competitiveness in me.”
At the age of 18, three days after graduating from Lawrenceville, he signed up and a month later was drafted into the army’s infantry. The next 15 months for Ross were like a montage in a motion picture: sixteen weeks of basic training, assignment to General George “Blood and Guts” Patton’s Third Army, 328th Division, a sniper's wound, recuperation at a British hospital, being sent back stateside, discharged from service, and then the start of college at Yale.
Ross’s transition as soldier to college student was not a smooth one. “I think the first couple of years at Yale I should have taken more time off before starting. After my war experience I was not ready to plunge back into the academic world.” Ross admits that he spent a lot of time at Yale’s Schubert Theatre, attending plays rather than studying. “They had a new show every week, it was the golden age of American theatre--A Street Car Named Desire one week and Mister Roberts the next.” By his junior year he settled down, applied himself, did well academically, and graduated from Yale with a degree in English in 1949.
After Yale he worked for J. B. Lippincott & Co., located in Philadelphia, selling medical books to doctors and hospitals in upstate New York and Pennsylvania. He was very successful, and at one point management wanted him to work in the office. But his dream was trade publishing, not to be realized at Lippincott, so he left for New York City to work in Doubleday's sales office, and subsequently as a copywriter for an advertising agency dealing specifically with publishing.
In 1957, Dell Publishing hired him, eventually promoting him to the office of editorial director. He co-founded Dell’s very successful Delacorte Press, and for about 10 years was responsible for eight lines of books, overseeing all acquiring, the marketing, book jackets, and hiring and firing. Because of his interest in theater and film, he pursued books in those areas and put together a Hollywood office, scouting for material pertaining to the entertainment world. He would later help publish autobiographies of Ingrid Bergman, Joan Blondell, Milton Berle, and Mary Astor.
One of his major coups was persuading William Goldman, screenwriter of such classic films as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men, Marathon Man, and The Princess Bride, to write for him. “Bill told such marvelous stories about Hollywood that I said to him, ‘Bill you really should write about your experiences in Hollywood.’ Six or eight months later, he walked into my office and handed me a manuscript entitled Adventures in the Screen Trade; he said, ‘You can read this. My agent is reading it at the same time and if he says you can’t publish this, then you are just going to have to forget it because I need to work in Hollywood again.’ Fortunately, his agent said that we could go ahead. Bill dedicated the book to me, and that was a thrill!” Subsequently, Ross would publish ten of Mr. Goldman’s books.
Ross’ s relationship with the National Board of Review began in the mid-1980’s when Robin Little, then the NBR’s Executive Director, asked him if he would be interested in joining the board of directors. As a lover of theatre and film he agreed and served for several years as both board member and the NBR’s vice-president. With his background, he helped broker a deal to publish The 500 Best American Films to Buy, Rent, or Videotape: Selected by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures and the Editors of Films in Review. A second book was published listing the best British and foreign films selected by the NBR.
So what kind of films does a successful book publisher love? Growing up, Ross wanted to be Fred Astaire, and he saw all the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movies that were released. He admits that he still treasures those films to this day. He is also a great fan of Citizen Kane and appreciates Hitchcock and loves Preston Sturges. “Lady Eve may be one of the funniest movies ever made.” He is also crazy about film noir and was fascinated by Jacques Tourneur’s Out of the Past; he saw it numerous times when it was released. “I can’t tell you the effect it had on me. And I could not quite understand it. I think it had to do with my mood at that particular moment, my restlessness when I was attending Yale.” He also considers this year’s The Hurt Locker one of the best, but his favorites are still films produced during the 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s.
Another of Ross’s successes was the creation of Key West’s Tropic Cinema. Fifteen years ago he and his friends, while sitting on the back porch of his Key West vacation home, bemoaned the fact that the local cineplex showed no "good films." So they formed a film society and began screening quality films at the old city hall and at a local auditorium. Eventually, they found a large enough space, a former furniture store, and built the Tropic Cinema, a three-screen arthouse theater. They recently added a fourth screen, and Florida Monthly magazine named Key West’s Tropic Cinema the best cinema in Florida for 2009. “It was really gratifying to see that. That is one of my proudest moments of my retirement years."
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