Ted Solotaroff of East Quogue died at his home on Friday, August 8, from complications of pneumonia. He was 79.
The founder of New American Review, a literary journal published in the 1960s and 1970s, Mr. Solotaroff was a writer, critic and editor who helped shape the careers of many prominent writers while working as senior editor at Harper & Row, a publishing company based in New York City, from 1979 to 1991.
Born on October 9, 1928, in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Mr. Solotaroff attended the University of Michigan, and while there his love for literature and his aspirations to write fiction began to take root. As a freshman, the first story he ever wrote won a campus fiction prize. He received his undergraduate degree in 1952 and later became a graduate student at the University of Chicago, receiving his master’s degree in 1956.
He began to build his own literary career as an editor and critic for the journal Commentary from 1960 to 1966, before starting New American Review in 1967. The literary journal, which was later called American Review, published writers including E.L. Doctorow, William H. Gass, Donald Barthelme and others.
In 1989, Rupert Murdoch bought Harper & Row and Mr. Solotaroff began to do less editing and more writing. He moved from Manhattan to East Quogue and wrote two volumes of critical essays before writing about his own life in two well-received books, “Truth Comes in Blows” in 1998, and “First Loves” in 2004. He was working on a third volume of his memoirs at the time of his death.
Mr. Solotaroff is survived by his wife of 28 years, Virginia Heiserman Solotaroff of East Quogue; four sons, Paul Solotaroff of Boston, Ivan Solotaroff of Newtown, Pennsylvania, Jason Solotaroff of Montclair, New Jersey, and Isaac Solotaroff of Brooklyn; five stepchildren, Regan, Alison and Arthur Heiserman, all of New York City, Lisa Heiserman of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Gina Heiserman of Woodstock, New York; a brother; and 13 grandchildren.
on Aug 12, 2008