'Turn Every Page' reveals industrious marriage between writer and editor

The relationship between writer and editor is a marriage. Following that line of thought, Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb have been married for 50 years, starting with The Power Broker in 1974. In those decades, they have produced five books totaling 4,888 pages. Gottlieb is 91 and Caro is 87, and they are racing to finish their work together.

Each is considered the best in his field.

Caro, author of biographies of Robert Moses and Lyndon Baines Johnson, is one of the best ever political writers, and Gottlieb is, perhaps, the greatest editor. According to his count, the so-called "Dumbledore of publishing" has edited between 600 and 700 books.

When Caro was an investigative reporter for Newsday, his editor, Alan Hathway, told him, "Just remember to turn every page," which became the source of the title of this admirable documentary about two equally admirable men.  Director Lizzie Gottlieb exploited the relationship with her father to gain admittance. That trust shows. Although she had to gain Caro's trust, that trust shows, too, by the end. She had to persuade them both to be filmed.

She shows them as youths. She shows Caro as the newspaperman still hunting and pecking on the home row of his Smith Corona Electra 210. She shows them with their outstanding agent, Lynn Nesbit. Lizzie Gottlieb records Robert Caro's infectious laugh and her father's fascination with ballet (he is on the board of the Miami City Ballet) and his collection of plastic purses. She barely catches them at their most private moment working together (significantly, without audio). If anyone gets shortchanged in "Turn Every Page," it is Caro's other editor, Katherine Hourigan.

"Turn Every Page" exhibits the humor and insights and history in the men's relationship. Each man, an articulate storyteller, describes his getting of wisdom and his understanding of the partnership. "I've always felt that if a non-fiction book is going to endure, the level of the prose, the narrative, the rhythm, etc. ... has to be at the same level as the greatest fiction that endures," said Caro. "He does the work," says Gottlieb. "I do the clean-up. Then we fight." The two argue about excisions and insertions; they take stands on the semi-colon (Caro pro; Gottlieb cautious). They do not apologize. 

"Turn Every Page" honors this marriage between this writer and editor, adorable and industrious wordsmiths par excellence.