“The greatest political biographer of the modern era.”
—The Sunday Times (UK)
HIS BOOKS
“Caro has forever changed the way we think about, and read, American history…Although the amount of research Caro has done for these books is staggering, it’s his immense talent as a writer that has made his [body of work] one of America’s most amazing literary achievements” (NPR).
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize
Winner of the National Book Award
Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award
Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize
I think about Robert Caro and reading The Power Broker back when I was twenty-two years old and just being mesmerized, and I’m sure it helped to shape how I think about politics.
—President Barack Obama, presenting Robert Caro with the National Humanities Medal
HIS HONORS
For his biographies of Robert Moses and Lyndon Johnson, Robert A. Caro has twice won the Pulitzer Prize, twice won the National Book Award, three times won the National Book Critics Circle Award, and has also won virtually every other major literary honor, including the National Humanities Medal, the Gold Medal in Biography from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Francis Parkman Prize, awarded by the Society of American Historians to the book that “exemplifies the union of the historian and the artist.”
Robert A. Caro Awarded the Bodley Medal
Caro was recently honored by Oxford University’s Bodley Library—one of the oldest libraries in England—with its highest honor, the Bodley Medal, awarded to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the worlds of books and literature, libraries, media and communications, science and philanthropy. The original Bodley Medal was struck in 1646. On the 400th anniversary of the Bodleian Library, copper metal saved from a renovation of the library’s original roof was given to the Royal Mint to create a set of one hundred replicas of the original medal, and the library started granting awards. To date, the restruck Bodley Medal has been awarded to only 30 individuals.
At a ceremony at Carnegie Hall, Richard Ovenden, Bodley’s Librarian, said, “Caro’s work demonstrates a rigorous respect for facts and the persistent determination of a researcher. There could be no better person to inaugurate the Bodley Lecture in North America and to receive the Bodley Medal.”
THE ARCHIVE
The Robert A. Caro Archive
The Robert A. Caro Archive was acquired by The New-York Historical Society, the oldest museum in New York City, and will be open to researchers in its Patricia D. Klingenstein Library in early 2024. The exhibit “Turn Every Page” is now on view on the second floor of The New-York Historical Society and offers a window into the archive’s treasures.
When I was still very young, an old newspaper editor said to me: “From now on, you do investigative work.”
I responded with my usual savoir faire: “But I don’t know anything about investigative reporting.”
The editor looked at me for what I remember as a very long time. “Just remember,” he said. “Turn every page. Never assume anything. Turn every goddamned page.”
FROM WORKING BY ROBERT CARO