John Sargent discusses his memoir, 'Turning Pages,' surfing in Montauk, more

New York native and former CEO of Macmillan John Sargent, is a titan of publishing. His new book, Turning Pages: The Adventures and Misadventures of a Publisher (Arcade Publishing, $26.99), recalls his 40 years in the book business, and then some.

Sargent, who has a house in Bridgehampton and, since retirement, spends a lot of time surfing in Montauk, spoke from his home about his family history in the book industry, his early education in a one-room schoolhouse in Wyoming and more.

Publishing runs in your family. How did that inform this book?

My great-grandfather [Frank Nelson Doubleday] wrote a book for friends and family about his life — memoirs of a publisher — that was never published. He dropped out of school in seventh grade to go to work because he had to, so he wasn’t a great writer. He had this ability to tell a story, though, and he was an amazing publisher. What I discovered in reading his book was that the best parts were where he talked about the people he worked with, or he’d say, “It was a difficult time because I was trying to get so-and-so done and Teddy kept calling me from the White House!”

This is one of the aspects that makes your book so much fun. You write about working with everyone from James Baldwin to Monica Lewinsky to LL Cool J to Alf.

That’s the magic of it. Everybody’s got a story. It is a big world, and a lot of people have interesting lives and want to tell about them. That’s just nonfiction — never mind fiction! If you are open to it, there is an incredible breadth of humanity and wonderful experiences to learn about. And being a publisher, I actually got to meet these people, not just read about them!

After so many years publishing books, what did it feel like to write one?

I’ve always been a storyteller and I’ve always enjoyed stories. What are books but stories? I figured I’d just write a collection of my favorite stories from my career. I’m lucky that I know a lot of editors, and when Jonathan Galassi [executive editor of Farrar, Straus and Giroux] read it, he told me to put more of my personal life in. I didn’t want to. But then the next person who read it said the same thing: we need to know you. I thought, I don’t want to do that, but I did.

You trusted your editors. How did you decide what to include about your personal life?

I knew I needed my first trip out to Wyoming, because that was formative. I have memories up to age 8 in Manhattan, but those weren’t my formative years. After my parents’ divorce, I went from living on the Upper East Side and going to The Dalton School to living on a ranch in Wyoming and going to a one-room schoolhouse. The shifting of gears was remarkable.

It was much easier to write about my family than me. If you think of your life, the reward is being useful to, or admired by, the people most important to you, always. I love my work. I always tried to do the right thing and work really hard, but at the end, it’s the people you are closest to who matter most.

What are two books that you are most proud to have published?

One is “Being Mortal” by Atul Gawande … It is a remarkable book to better understand the medical system, the ways in which it is not built to help the aging. That book had a very wide impact and helped a lot of people; I can’t tell you how many have told me reading that book was life-changing for them.

The second is a bit different. I love walking into a room and doing this test, asking how many people learned their ABCs from the book “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.” Often, 100% will raise their hands. The first time I saw that book was magical and I knew it was something special. A bunch of us in our small company all focused on it, relentlessly pushing it because we believed in it. It worked and was remarkable. That so many people learned their ABCs because of that book still gives me goose bumps all these years later.

At the end of the book, you write frankly about leaving publishing during the pandemic.

Getting fired was difficult — I probably did it badly, the company did it badly. I was not willing to be dishonest about it. I was fired and I wasn’t willing to say I wasn’t fired, to put out a press release that says: John Sargent decides to retire early and pursue new interests.

… I don’t want to run a big publishing company again. I use my accumulated knowledge to help folks; sustainability and the ocean are now where I put my time. But the book doesn’t end with me leaving publishing. It ends with me surfing with my son. I wanted to end the book with the more important stuff — family, my feelings for my son. That is the end of the story.

Along with chairing the Ocean Conservancy, you do a lot of outreach and volunteering. What do you tell younger people who want to work in the publishing industry today?

Dive in. If you love books, there’s no better profession. People will say that it is not what it used to be, that publishing is dying. Hogwash! The industry is full of lots of incredibly talented, fantastic human beings who love books. I couldn’t be more optimistic or enthusiastic about the future of publishing. It is not what it used to be, that’s true. That’s exactly why it is so great.