“At turns reviled and adored, fragile and invincible, free and shackled, Blanche Knopf was often denied credit for the success of the publishing firm she founded with her husband, and that bears his name alone. With a winning eye to detail, with empathy and wit, Laura Claridge gives Blanche Knopf her hard-earned seat at the high table of literary modernism.”

“Claridge’s lucid and sympathetic portrait of an unconventional and path breaking woman mired in a marriage that left her emotionally bereft but professionally empowered, will resonate with any reader who, like Blanche Knopf, has ever found salvation in books.”

“Claridge triumphantly restores Blanche Knopf’s central place in 20th-century publishing history.”

“Overall . . . for much of the past century, young writers have regularly dreamed of being published by Alfred A. Knopf.”

“A fascinating look at Blanche Knopf . . . Filled with insights into the literary intrigues of the times . . . highly recommended to readers.”

“It took all of Blanche’s wiles to attract great writers despite the invariably mean royalty advances offered by her husband, who believed that the cachet of Knopf was its own reward.”

“[Claridge] manages to synthesize an enormous amount of research and biographical information to paint a complete picture of a complex figure. Packed with interesting literary anecdotes, this biography reveals a powerful woman who played an integral role in 20th-century publishing.”

“Laura Claridge builds a compelling case that it was Blanche, far more than Alfred, who was responsible for [Knopf’s] superiority, who pursued and persuaded writers to sign on—often for low salaries and pitiful advances—for the sake of the firm’s reputation and for her own devoted personal attention.”

“Claridge (a well regarded biographer whose other subjects include Emily Post and Norman Rockwell) wants to rub some of [the] Knopf radiance off on Blanche. And Blanche did spend much time in the limelight during her days as a literary headhunter. She was a jet-setter when there were only propellers, seeking culture: high or unconventional, as long as it had the stuff. . . . Blanche worked like a dog – a stylishly dressed, artfully spoken dog who was also an astute listener with a taste for bourbon and caviar to sign vanguard talent: Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Nella Larsen, Langston Hughes, Willa Cather, Muriel Spark, Wallace Stevens, William Shirer, John Hersey, Thomas Mann, Sigmund Freud, Albert Camus, Simon de Beauvoir, and Jorge Amado.

Once she did sign them, of course, Alfred took the credit. Claridge handles the theme of a woman’s struggle for power and recognition with aplomb. . . . Claridge also does well in delineating Blanche’s role in furthering Modernism; embracing the New Negro Movement, which morphed into the Harlem Renaissance; nursing her authors along (an exquisitely touchy mob, to get them to write at all may have been Blanche’s greatest accomplishment); encouraging preludes to New Journalism. . . . These are smart notes toward understanding Blanche Knopf. Blanche was a force for good: building a brilliant catalogue, continuing to work for years even as her eyesight failed. . . . The achievements of the Knopfs were remarkable and readers today owe much to their legacy – and to Blanche in particular.”

“[Laura] Claridge is the first to bring Blanche Wolf Knopf fully out of the shadows in this meticulous, groundbreaking biography. . . . Blanche signed epoch-defining writers, including Willa Cather, Thomas Mann, Langston Hughes, Wallace Stevens, Dashiell Hammett, and Raymond Chandler. Blanche knew everyone, loved to party, had many affairs . . . Claridge illuminates a radiant facet of American publishing and women’s history as she portrays Blanche Knopf in all her brainy and aesthetic glory and elegant fortitude.”

“Claridge succeeds at what she has set out to do. The Lady with the Borzoi not only argues convincingly for the centrality of Blanche Knopf’s place in publishing history but makes it difficult to look at the Knopf logo with considering how closely the sleek Russian wolfhound reflects Blanche’s sense of herself and her public persona: streamlined, intelligent, elegant, and driven to run ahead of the pack.” New York Review of Books
“A long overdue acknowledgment of the pioneering role Blanche played at a time when women were nearly invisible in the business world . . . she was a far more complicated and interesting character [than her husband, Alfred]: brilliant and ambitious.”