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Jonathan Cott
Jonathan Cott
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Key Information

Jonathan Cott (born December 24, 1942) is an American author, journalist, and editor. Much of his work focuses on music, embracing both classical and rock. He has been a contributing editor at Rolling Stone since the magazine's founding, and has written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, and other publications.[1]

Cott grew up in New York City, the son of television executive Ted Cott and Jean Cahan. He received a B.A. from Columbia University in 1964, and an M.A. from The University of California, Berkeley in 1966.[2] He spent the late 1960s in London, where he began a long friendship with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Cott was the last journalist to interview Lennon, three days before his death.[3]

In 1970, he became a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, where he specialized in interviews, many of which were later collected in his 2020 book Listening. Writer Jan Morris called him "an incomparable interviewer," and Studs Terkel is quoted as saying that "Jonathan Cott, as an interviewer, reveals truths of creative spirits."[4] Cott wrote often about Bob Dylan, eventually producing two books about Dylan. In The New York Times, Janet Maslin called Cott "arguably the most simpatico writer ever to converse with Mr. Dylan."[5]

In addition to rock music, Cott has also written extensively on children's books, editing the 1985 collection Beyond the Looking Glass: Extraordinary Works of Fairy Tale and Fantasy and writing the 1983 book Pipers at the Gates of Dawn: The Wisdom of Children’s Literature. He collaborated with Maurice Sendak on a collection of Victorian picture books, and later wrote a biography of Sendak, There's a Mystery There: The Primal Vision of Maurice Sendak (2019).[6]

Cott suffered for years from bipolar disorder. His mother's death in 1988 set off a period of clinical depression, which led him to two years of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). After 36 treatments, he no longer remembered anything from 1985 to 2000. He spent the next years of his life piecing his memories back together, a quest that he wrote about in his 2005 book On the Sea of Memory: A Journey From Forgetting to Remembering. Asked in a Salon interview whether he was shocked by anything he learned, Cott replied, "Well, I was overjoyed to hear about the end of apartheid. I was really upset, but more on a personal level, when I heard that Glenn Gould had died, or that John Lennon had died, or that Bob Marley had died – people whom I cherished, poets I had admired. I found out they had died at the same time. They all died at once."[7]

Works

[edit]

Author:

  • He Dreams What Is Going On Inside His Head (1973)
  • Stockhausen: Conversations with the Composer (1973)
  • Forever Young (1978)
  • Charms (1981)
  • Pipers at the Gates of Dawn: The Wisdom of Children’s Literature (1983)
  • Conversations with Glenn Gould (1984)
  • Dylan (1984)
  • Visions and Voices (1987)
  • Search for Omm Sety: A Story of Eternal Love (1987)
  • Wandering Ghost: The Odyssey of Lafcadio Hearn (1991)
  • Isis and Osiris (1994)
  • Thirteen: A Journey Into the Number (1996)
  • Homelands (2000)
  • Back to a Shadow in the Night: Music Writings and Interviews—1968–2001 (2003)
  • On the Sea of Memory: A Journey From Forgetting to Remembering (2005)
  • Bob Dylan: The Essential Interviews (2006)
  • Dinner with Lenny: The Last Long Interview with Leonard Bernstein (2013)
  • Days That I’ll Remember: Spending Time with John Lennon and Yoko Ono (2013)
  • There's a Mystery There: The Primal Vision of Maurice Sendak (2017)
  • Listening: Interviews, 1970–1989 (2020)
  • Let Me Take You Down: Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever (2024)

Editor:

  • The Roses Race Around Her Name: Poems From Fathers to Daughters (1974)
  • Victorian Color Picture Books (with Maurice Sendak) (1983)
  • Beyond the Looking Glass: Extraordinary Works of Fairy Tale and Fantasy (1985)
  • Skies in Blossom: The Nature Poetry of Emily Dickinson (1995)

References

[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia
from Grokipedia
Jonathan Cott is an American journalist, author, and editor known for his long association with Rolling Stone magazine and his in-depth interviews with major figures in music, literature, and culture. He has served as a contributing editor and writer for Rolling Stone since its early years, producing some of the magazine's most memorable long-form conversations, including John Lennon's last interview conducted three days before his death, Leonard Bernstein's final major discussion, and significant talks with Lou Reed, Elizabeth Taylor, Werner Herzog, and others. Cott has also contributed to The New York Times and The New Yorker, covering a wide range of subjects from music to mythology and biography. His work is characterized by extended, thoughtful dialogues that explore artistic process, personal vision, and cultural impact across classical and rock music, children's literature, and esoteric topics. He is the author of numerous books, including collections of interviews and original explorations such as Days That I’ll Remember: Spending Time with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Conversations with Glenn Gould, Pipers at the Gates of Dawn: The Wisdom of Children’s Literature, There’s a Mystery There: The Primal Vision of Maurice Sendak, and The Search for Omm Sety. Cott lives in New York City and has published nearly twenty titles that reflect his diverse interests in creativity, spirituality, and human experience.

Early Life

Birth and Family Background

Jonathan Cott was born on December 24, 1942, in New York City. Details about his family background and parents are not widely documented in public sources.

Childhood and Education

Cott attended Columbia University, where he served as an associate editor for editorials in the Columbia Spectator student newspaper in 1964. Information on his childhood, formative experiences, or additional educational details is limited in reliable public sources. Biographical profiles primarily focus on his later career in journalism and authorship.

Career

Jonathan Cott is a journalist, author, and editor known for his long association with Rolling Stone magazine. He has served as a contributing editor since the magazine's early years, producing in-depth interviews with major figures in music and culture. Biographical profiles describe his career as centered on journalism, editing, and authorship, with emphasis on music in both classical and rock genres, literature, mythology, and biography. He has also contributed to The New York Times, The New Yorker, and other outlets. No reliable sources mention involvement in film, television, or acting. In his later career, Cott has remained active as a journalist, author, and contributing editor at Rolling Stone, continuing to produce books that draw on his history of interviews and cultural commentary. His publications have often revisited earlier work, including collections of historic interviews. In 2020, he published Listening: Interviews, 1970–1989, which includes his nine-hour interview with John Lennon conducted three days before Lennon's death. He also contributed text for the book accompanying the Let It Be album box set The Beatles Get Back. In 2024, Cott released Let Me Take You Down: Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever, an examination of the Beatles' 1967 double A-side single, detailing the songs' conception, recording process, and cultural significance through discussions with figures such as Laurie Anderson, Bill Frisell, Richard Gere, Margaret Klenck, and Jonathan F. P. Rose. These works reflect his sustained engagement with rock music history and ongoing productivity into his eighties.

Personal Life

Relationships and Family

Jonathan Cott has largely kept his personal relationships and family life private, with no details about spouses, partners, children, or extended family members appearing in available biographical accounts or interviews. He resides in New York City. Public sources focus primarily on his professional work and personal struggles with depression and memory loss rather than familial ties.

Personal Interests and Activities

Jonathan Cott maintains a broad array of intellectual interests centered on literature, mythology, spirituality, and cultural symbolism, often explored through his writing and research. He has shown a particular affinity for children's literature, fairy tales, and the imaginative inner world of childhood, authoring Pipers at the Gates of Dawn: The Wisdom of Children’s Literature and editing Beyond the Looking Glass: Extraordinary Works of Fairy Tale and Fantasy, while collaborating with Maurice Sendak on projects highlighting Victorian picture books and Sendak's creative vision. Cott's fascination with ancient mythology, esoteric traditions, and concepts such as reincarnation is evident in his book Search for Omm Sety: A Story of Eternal Love, which documents the life of Dorothy Eady, an Englishwoman convinced she was the reincarnation of an ancient Egyptian priestess, blending biography with explorations of past-life memory and Egyptology. His contributions to Tricycle: The Buddhist Review further indicate an engagement with Buddhist philosophy and related spiritual themes. In addition to these pursuits, Cott's deep appreciation for music—spanning classical and rock—remains a core personal interest, informing much of his non-fiction work and interviews over decades.

Death

Circumstances of Death

Jonathan Cott is alive as of 2024, with recent publications including Let Me Take You Down: Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever (2024) and Listening: Interviews, 1970–1989 (2020). Claims of his death in 2012 appear to confuse him with another individual of the same name. He is reported to reside in New York City.

Legacy and Recognition

Jonathan Cott has garnered recognition for his distinctive and empathetic approach to interviewing prominent figures in music and the arts. In a 2006 New York Times review of his edited collection Bob Dylan: The Essential Interviews, critic Janet Maslin described him as "arguably the most simpatico writer ever to converse with Mr. Dylan." This praise highlights his ability to foster insightful and revealing dialogues that have contributed to the documentation of creative lives across decades. Beyond this specific commendation, documented formal awards, major institutional honors, or widespread tributes remain limited in available sources. His lasting impact appears centered on his body of published interviews and books, which continue to serve as references in music journalism and cultural studies. As an active contributor into his later years, Cott's full legacy remains evolving.

Sources and Verification Notes

Known Information and Gaps

Jonathan Cott is an American journalist, author, and editor known for his long association with Rolling Stone and contributions to other publications. No specific birth date or death date is documented in available sources; publisher profiles and article bios do not provide vital statistics or early life details. Cott has documented memory loss covering the 15-year period from 1985 to 2000, resulting from electroconvulsive therapy administered for severe depression. Publicly accessible sources provide minimal insight into his family background, relationships, or private interests beyond his published writings and author profiles.

Research Limitations

The available biographical information on Jonathan Cott is largely confined to brief author profiles on publisher websites and references in publication bios, offering high-level overviews of his career without extensive detail on personal or chronological developments. Publicly accessible credible sources provide minimal insight into his family background, relationships, or private interests, as Cott has not been the subject of major biographical profiles or memoirs beyond his own writings. A key constraint stems from Cott's documented memory loss covering the 15-year period from 1985 to 2000, resulting from electroconvulsive therapy administered for severe depression, which significantly limits firsthand accounts or verifiable details from that era. Although Cott has maintained a long association with Rolling Stone and contributed to other outlets, his articles and interviews are dispersed across decades without a comprehensive digital archive, complicating systematic review of his full output. Recent activities and current status receive little coverage in major media, further restricting the ability to document later stages of his life or contributions.
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