University of Delaware Office of Public Relations The Messenger Vol. 6, No. 1/1996 Molding two lifelong passions into one career The Rev. Jane Garrett, Delaware '57, who lives near Northampton, Mass., speaks about her love for history as though she just discovered it. A senior editor for the Alfred A. Knopf Publishing Co., she coordinates the production of five to 10 books per year-books that are mostly historical in content and that routinely meet with critical acclaim. "History is interpretation, and everyone looks at it differently," Garrett says. "Over the years, truth is built by various scholars who find bits and pieces. These people have a special angle of vision, or they find new documents. The cumulative work produces a sense of what really happened. I found that enormously exciting as a young scholar and still do. "Some people are put off by that, because they want everything to be set in concrete: There are no questions to be answered. I love all the controversy and interpretation," she says. Even though editors are not as visible as their publishing houses, they play an integral part in the products that are placed on the bookshelves. While Garrett has received little public acknowledgment for her critical role, her legacy is dramatic. A June 4 article in The New York Times noted that she has edited six Pulitzer Prize-winning books in history, the latest being Alan Taylor's William Cooper's Town; a National Book Award recipient (John Clive's Macaulay); a National Book Critics Circle Awardee (John Clive's Not By Fact Alone); four Bancroft Award winners (including David Reynolds' Walt Whitman's America); and numerous other books that have won prizes from historical associations. In recognition of her professional success, Garrett was inducted into UD's Alumni Wall of Fame more than 10 years ago. Garrett is a combination entrepreneur and product manager. Mostly, she focuses on acquisition (reading manuscripts, seeking and being sought by authors and literary agents), partnerships with authors (before, during and after publication), the publication process (coordinating and overseeing the production from the original manuscript to the printed book) and her role as a resource for authors and others in the publishing industry during the entire publication process. "The job is accumulative," she says. "I am so much busier now than 10 years ago, because I am still dealing with authors who may not have a book in active production." At an early age, she discovered her fascination for Americana. This interest helped shape her destiny, and at the same time, she has welcomed new challenges. During the last decade, she has integrated her editorial career with her ordination as an Episcopal priest. The roots of Garrett's success go back to several key events, beginning with her teenage years in Cheswold and Smryna, Del. First, she talks with fondness about a junior high school teacher who "set her mind on fire to read history." "I was a voracious reader, and Life magazine ran various series on history. One was about who discovered America," she says. "Our history textbook said the usual thing about Columbus discovering America, so one day I said to my teacher, 'Wait a minute. There's some debate about that.'" Instead of telling her to be quiet, the teacher assigned Garrett a research project. "It was the real beginning of my love for history," she continues, "finding out that it was not a dull set of facts." Recalling her "fabulously good" undergraduate education at the University, Garrett says, "I had the good fortune and added benefit when I was a junior to receive a Social Science Research Council undergraduate research stipend. This award, suggested by John A. Munroe [now H. Rodney Sharp Professor Emeritus of History], provided small amounts to undergraduates to do research. I spent that summer in Baltimore and Philadelphia researching my honors thesis. The experience launched me into directions that I'm still involved in. I ended up with a B.A. from Delaware but had the equivalent of an M.A." A. Janney De Armond, professor emeritus of English, also has been enormously influential since Garrett's days at the University. She continues to visit Garrett in the summers when traveling throughout New England. "She's been a role model for me. Partly, it's her sense of scholarship, but it's also her wonderful manner with students and everyone she meets," Garrett says. "Jan has a remarkable spirit and consistent approach to life. Recently, she's been teaching courses on the Bible as literature, and we often talk about our mutual interests." Garrett's decision to work for Knopf in 1966 has had far- reaching influence on her 30-year career in the publishing industry. She was fortunate to have a friend in Boston who told Alfred Knopf about her work as assistant to the director of the Boston Athenaeum Library and as editor at the New York Historical Society. "I did not have to seek the job, but certainly admired Knopf books as absolutely top of the line," she says. At first, as Knopf's assistant, she "rode herd" on his projects, but she gradually accumulated her own writers, who describe her in The New York Times article as "unusually patient," "a good listener who can steer writers out of academic thickets" and "non-authoritarian but firm." In 1973, her personal philosophy was profoundly changed. She took a one-year sabbatical from Knopf and went to work as a volunteer publications developer for the Adult Literacy Organization of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). The African situation opened her mind to the realities of world politics and social issues. She explains, "That experience radicalized me. I realized that many of the horrific problems in Africa were also problems that existed in the United States-racism, poverty, hunger." After returning to the U.S., she became more deeply involved in the church through its hunger program and community action work. "It was not that I wanted to stop one career and start another. That was not it. I tried to avoid the call to seek ordination, but it kept coming back. Whether volunteer or ordained, I was being called into the world to deal with the world," she recalls. Her ministry has evolved almost exclusively into national committee work. She is particularly pleased to be on her church's Committee for Dialog on Human Sexuality, which she co-chairs until 1997. With a reputation as a peacemaker, she gets along with both conservatives and liberals. A strong sense of fairness is one of her guiding principles. "We have to find ways to let both sides of the issues be brought forth and talked about in calm and rational ways," she emphasizes. Garrett's work as an editor has been instrumental in her service to the church. Both jobs require interpersonal communication skills and a sensitivity to the human spirit. When she was first involved in the church, Knopf was not publishing books that related to religious and social issues. With enthusiasm, she says, "I am now able to work with authors like Karen Armstrong, author of History of God and History of Jerusalem, and Andrew Sullivan, author of Virtually Normal. Working with Andrew has been a privilege and has served as a connection to my committee work on sexuality issues within the church. For a while, they were separate interests; now, they overlap." In a world obsessed with specialists, Garrett's liberal arts education has been an advantage. She says, "There are fewer and fewer jobs for people who are not trained with some particular expertise. I identify with that because I am a generalist and found a niche where being a generalist is a good thing. Most editors have a degree of specialty, but they are still generalists." As humanist and visionary, Garrett combines her two life passions by bridging the secular and spiritual worlds. She compares her work to being a midwife and birthing babies, using similar techniques to give birth to ideas. As she continues to connect both worlds, it would not be a surprise to learn that her best work is yet to be born. -Sally Donatello, Delaware '66, '92M