Poetic Obituaries: "Even Shakespeare, who they say didn't blot

many words, blotted some, after all," Mr. [Robert ] Giroux said. "And Jack, you ain't Shakespeare."

An indignant Kerouac called him a "crass idiot," stormed out and published "On the Road" with Viking.

In 1955, Mr. Giroux tired of the strictures at Harcourt and joined the informal but high-minded Farrar, Straus.

from The Washington Post: Robert Giroux; Publishing Maverick Discovered and Edited Great Writers

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