Open Letters Monthly mourns the death of legendary editor Bob Silvers, who along with Barbara Epstein edited the New York Review of Books from 1963 to 2006 when Epstein died, after which he carried on alone in the position until the end of his life. He commented often in that mind-boggling stretch of time that he viewed his job as bringing together the perfect reviewers with the perfect books and then "getting out of the way and letting some magic happen." But as the legion of writers, publishers, and assistants whose work he helped can attest, he brought his own peculiar magic to the process. That magic is now gone from the world of books and book reviewing, and the lack of it is going to feel strange for a long time.
