In ‘Turn Every Page,’ Robert Caro Shows the Power of a Daily Uniform

Do you enjoy deep dives into the literary process? Old guys named Bob good-naturedly arguing? Warm and affectionate storytelling? New York accents with vowels so rounded that they’re perfectly spherical? Then Turn Every Page: The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb will be a veritable feast. 

The documentary, released in 2022, is a rare look into the long, fruitful, and sometimes contentious relationship between legendary political writer Robert Caro and his legendary editor Robert Gottlieb. (The director is the latter’s daughter, Lizzie Gottlieb.) The two men started working together in 1970 on The Power Broker, Caro’s gargantuan Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Robert Moses. (Though it clocks in at 700,000 words, Gottlieb cut 350,000 from the original manuscript.) They continued collaborating with Caro’s multi-volume, ongoing biography of Lyndon B. Johnson. These days, Caro, 87, and Gottlieb, 91, are in the midst of what will be the fifth and final installment.  

It’s extremely satisfying to watch two people at the top of their game who are, above all, motivated by the work itself. One telling anecdote: When a young Caro was trying to find an editor for The Power Broker, he was being courted by four potential candidates. Three of them tried to impress him with lunch at the Four Seasons and promises of fame. The fourth, Gottlieb, was too busy to leave his office, so he ordered sandwiches for himself and Caro to his desk. The rest is history.

Turn Every Page also led to another profound revelation on my part: Is Robert Caro not just one of our great American literary icons but … one of our great American style icons? 

For the past 50 years, as seen in the movie, Caro has been sticking to more or less one look. Dark suit, red tie. Real heads will also recognize a brief cameo by a scarf he wore in Ric Burns’s New York: A Documentary Film (1999).  

Appearing at an event with longtime fan Conan O’Brien? Dark suit, red tie. 

Receiving the National Humanities Medal from longtime fan President Barack Obama? Dark suit, red tie. 

Working completely alone in his office? Dark suit, red tie. (As The New York Times reported in 2021, “He routinely wears a jacket and tie to an office where he is the only occupant.”) 

Being photographed as a young man? Dark suit, red tie. 

Plenty of creative geniuses have historically been acknowledged as genius uniform dressers: Steve Jobs, Karl Lagerfeld, Yohji Yamamoto. And, just as Caro’s books are firmly established in the canon, so should his Brooks Brothers-core outfits. 

Yes, his preferred look is straightforward. As simple as his writing is sweeping. And certainly more staid than the flashy suits his favorite subject, LBJ, favored. (“His clothes were dramatic, too,” Caro wrote in Master of the Senate. “Although he owned blue suits, most of them didn’t look like those worn by other senators; so rich and shimmering was their fabric that friends joked about Lyndon’s ‘silver suits.’”) Caro’s uniform is still reliably sharp and tailored. A serious ensemble for a serious undertaking. And, as we know, developing and hewing to your personal style is not just practical but the most sustainable way to dress. 

It checks out that Caro has attached himself to one look throughout the decades. This is a man who still writes his books longhand, before typing them out on an old Smith Corona typewriter. But even if, as I suspect, Caro doesn’t spend much time musing about his personal style, he managed to nail a powerful one. And, by wearing the same thing every day, it’s one less thing he has to think about. After all, he’s got work to do.