WSJ hires Carduff as its books editor

The Wall Street Journal has hired Christopher Carduff as its books editor.

He will be responsible for the daily book reviews as well as the collection of reviews in the weekend Review section.

Since 2006 he has been an editor and publishing consultant at the Library of America, where he has conceived and overseen multi-volume editions of the collected workers of classic writers including Carson McCullers, Katherine Anne Porter, Virgil Thomson, Kurt Vonnegut and Laura Ingalls Wilder.

He is the estate-appointed editor of posthumous works by Maeve Brennan, Penelope Fitzgerald, Daniel Fuchs, William Maxwell, and, most notably, John Updike. As the publishing consultant to the Updike literary trust, he has edited Updike’s Higher Gossip, Always Looking, Collected Stories and Selected Poems, and is currently overseeing the Library of American edition of his novels and a forthcoming collection of his letters.

“I’m thrilled that Christopher Carduff has agreed to bring his enormous talent and experience to the Journal as books editor,” said editorial page editor Paul Gigot in a statement. “Chris has edited and published some of the finest writers of recent decades, and Journal readers are sure to benefit as he and his team sort the good from the bad in literature, culture, politics, science and other subjects in our daily and weekend reviews.”

Carduff, a graduate of Macalester College, will relocate from Boston to New York and lead the Journal’s book review team of David Propson, Erich Eichman, Tim Farrington, Dorothy Rabinowitz and Ben Shull.