Editors of The New York Times Book Review, 1896-2017: Why have so few of them written novels or poems? Has Times been prejudiced against fiction writers?

After my previous post—which contrasted the cognitive styles of Pamela Paul, Book Review Editor, and Nicole Lamy, the Match Book columnist—I wondered if past Editors had been like Pamela Paul, nonfiction writers.

As the following list indicates, of the nineteen Editors since The New York Times Book Review became a separate section in 1896, I could find only two, John Leonard and Harvey Shapiro, who had published novels or poems:

  1. Francis Whiting Halsey (1896-1902)

 2. Edward Augustus Dithmar (1902-1907)

 3. John Grant Dater (1907-1910)

 4. Joseph Benson Gilder (1910-1911)

 5. George Buchanan Fife (1911-1912)

 6. Louis H.[?] Wetmore (1912-1913)

 7. Clifford Smyth (1913-1922)

 8. Brooks Atkinson (1922-1925)

 9. J. (James) Donald Adams (1925-1943)

10. Robert Van Gelder (1944-1946)

11. John K. Hutchens (1946-1948)

12. (Ernest) Francis Brown (1949-1971)

13. John Leonard (1971-1975) (novels)

14. Harvey Shapiro (1975-1983) (poems)

15. Mitchel R. Levitas (1983-1989)

16. Rebecca Pepper Sinkler (1989-1995)

17. Charles McGrath (1995-2004)

18. Sam Tanenhaus (2004-2013)

19. Pamela Paul (2013-present)

So I wonder if those who have chosen Editors for The New York Times Book Review have been prejudiced against fiction writers. And if so, I wonder on what that prejudice is based: on the way fiction writers, in contrast to nonfiction writers, think?