Robert Allan Caro (born October 30, 1935) is an American journalist and author who is famous for writing books about important United States political figures, Robert Moses and Lyndon Johnson.

After working as a reporter for many years, Caro wrote The Power Broker (1974), a biography about Robert Moses, a New York urban planner. This book was selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 greatest nonfiction books of the twentieth century. Caro later wrote four books in a planned series of five called The Years of Lyndon Johnson (1982, 1990, 2002, 2012), which is a biography about the former president. Caro has been called "the most influential biographer of the last century."

For his biographies, Caro has won two Pulitzer Prizes in Biography, two National Book Awards (including one for Lifetime Achievement), the Francis Parkman Prize, three National Book Critics Circle Awards, the Mencken Award for Best Book, the Carr P. Collins Award from the Texas Institute of Letters, the D. B. Hardeman Prize, and a Gold Medal in Biography from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2010, President Barack Obama gave Caro the National Humanities Medal.

Because Caro is known for doing very detailed research, some reviewers use the term "Caro-esque" to describe other writers who also conduct extensive research in their work.

Life and career

Caro was born in New York City to Jewish parents, Celia (born in New York) and Benjamin Caro (born in Warsaw, Poland). He grew up on Central Park West near 94th Street. His father, a businessman, spoke Yiddish and English but rarely used either language. Caro described his father as "very silent," and he became even quieter after Caro's mother passed away from a long illness when Robert was 11. His mother had wished for him to attend Horace Mann School, a special private school in the Riverdale area of The Bronx. At Horace Mann, Caro translated his school newspaper into Russian and sent 10,000 copies to students in the USSR. He graduated in 1953 and later attended Princeton University, where he studied English. He became managing editor of The Daily Princetonian, second in rank to Johnny Apple, who later worked at The New York Times.

Caro wrote long essays and stories even during his time at Horace Mann. A short story he wrote for The Princeton Tiger, the school's humor magazine, filled nearly an entire issue. His 235-page senior thesis on existentialism in Hemingway, titled "Heading Out: A Study of the Development of Ernest Hemingway's Thought," was so long that the university later set a maximum length for senior theses, known as "the Caro rule." He graduated with honors in 1957.

A 2012 New York Times Magazine article noted that Caro believed Princeton, which he chose for its social life, was a mistake and that he should have attended Harvard. Princeton in the 1950s was not always welcoming to Jewish students, though Caro did not personally face antisemitism. He saw others who did. He wrote for The Princetonian and The Princeton Tiger.

Caro began his career as a reporter for the New Brunswick Daily Home News, now part of the Home News Tribune in New Jersey. He briefly worked as a publicist for the Middlesex County Democratic Party. He left politics after an incident where he saw African American poll watchers being arrested by police. He left immediately and later recalled the event in the 2012 article, saying the disturbing part was not the police's actions but the lack of resistance from the people being arrested.

After briefly studying English at Rutgers University, where he worked as a teaching assistant, Caro spent six years as an investigative reporter for Newsday, a Long Island newspaper. His article "Anatomy of a $9 Burglary," which explored the impact of a small theft, was praised by The New York Times for his thorough research. He also wrote a series about a proposed bridge across Long Island Sound, which he argued would cause environmental harm. He believed his work influenced Governor Nelson Rockefeller to reconsider the project until the state Assembly approved a plan for the bridge.

This experience changed Caro's views. He realized that power in a democracy could come from sources other than the ballot box. He later gave a speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, introducing Senator Ted Kennedy and highlighting the importance of courage in American leaders.

Work

In 1965–1966, Caro was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. During a class on urban planning and land use, he recalled a past experience involving Robert Moses. This memory inspired Caro to begin writing a biography of Moses titled The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York. The book also explored Caro’s interest in how power is gained and used. Caro expected the work to take nine months but completed it in 1974. The research included 522 interviews, such as those with Michael Madigan (who worked for Moses for 35 years), Sidney Shapiro (Moses’s general manager for 40 years), and Moses himself. Caro also interviewed people who knew Moses’s mentor, New York Governor Al Smith. In 1967–1968, Caro worked on the book as a Carnegie Fellow at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Caro’s wife, Ina, helped him as a research assistant. Her master’s thesis on the Verrazzano–Narrows Bridge was based on this work. At one point, she sold the family home and took a teaching job to help Caro finish the book financially.

The Power Broker is widely seen as an important work because it combined detailed historical research with a smooth, engaging writing style. One example of this was Caro’s chapter on the Cross Bronx Expressway, where he described the controversy from many perspectives, including those of neighborhood residents. The book became both a literary and academic success. After its publication, Moses responded to the biography with a 23-page statement denying its claims.

After The Power Broker, Caro focused on President Lyndon B. Johnson. His editor, Robert Gottlieb, suggested the Johnson project instead of a planned biography of Fiorello La Guardia. Caro had already decided to write about Johnson, saying he “wanted to write about power.” To better understand Johnson’s life, Caro moved temporarily to rural Texas and Washington, D.C., to interview people who knew him. The series, The Years of Lyndon Johnson, was originally planned as a trilogy but now includes five volumes:

• The Path to Power (1982): Covers Johnson’s life up to his failed 1941 Senate campaign.
• Means of Ascent (1990): Begins after his 1941 defeat and continues through his 1948 Senate election.
• Master of the Senate (2002): Describes Johnson’s rise as Senate Majority Leader.
• The Passage of Power (2012): Details the 1960 election, LBJ’s presidency after JFK’s assassination, and his early years as president.
• A fifth, unpublished volume: Focuses on Johnson’s work in Vietnam, the Great Society, civil rights, and his retirement.

In 2011, Caro announced the project would expand to five volumes, with the fifth requiring two to three more years to complete. As of March 2025, Caro had written 980 pages of the fifth volume.

Caro’s books show Johnson as a complex person, both a skilled politician and a progressive leader. For example, Caro wrote that Johnson’s 1948 Senate victory involved fraud and ballot stuffing, similar to his earlier 1941 loss. He also noted Johnson’s connections to companies like Brown and Root, later acquired by Halliburton, which worked in Vietnam. Caro argued that Johnson received the Silver Star in World War II for both military and political reasons and later lied about it. He also highlighted Johnson’s efforts to pass the Voting Rights Act despite opposition.

Many of Johnson’s close friends, including John Connally and George Christian, spoke with Caro. However, Lady Bird Johnson stopped talking to him without explanation, and Bill Moyers, Johnson’s press secretary, refused to be interviewed.

While writing, Caro studied the works of novelist Leo Tolstoy and historian Edward Gibbon. He believed that good history must be well written, saying, “History is a story. If you’re not telling a story, you’re not being faithful to history.”

Caro’s books were published by Alfred A. Knopf, first under editor Robert Gottlieb and later by Sonny Mehta. Gottlieb remained Caro’s main editor, even after leaving Knopf. After Gottlieb and Mehta’s deaths, Kathy Hourigan became Caro’s primary editor. A 2022 documentary, Turn Every Page: The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb, explored their partnership.

Caro hopes to write a full memoir after finishing The Years of Lyndon Johnson. His 2019 book Working is a “semi-memoir” about research and writing. When asked about other projects, Caro mentioned a biography of Al Smith, calling him “the most forgotten consequential figure in American history.”

To avoid writer’s block, Caro creates an outline on a 22-foot corkboard before writing. He drafts his books by hand on legal pads and types them on Smith Corona Electra 210 typewriters. After the typewriters were discontinued, Caro uses spare parts from others who share his typewriters. One of these typewriters, used to write The Power Broker, is displayed in an exhibition at the New York Historical Society.

Awards and honors

Robert Caro has won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography twice for his books about Robert Moses and Lyndon B. Johnson. He has also received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Best Nonfiction Book of the Year three times. Other major awards include two National Book Awards (one for Lifetime Achievement), the Gold Medal in Biography from the American Academy of Art and Letters, and the Francis Parkman Prize.

In October 2007, Caro was named a "Holtzbrinck Distinguished Visitor" at the American Academy in Berlin, Germany, but he could not attend the event.

In 2010, he received the National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama, the highest honor in the humanities in the United States. President Obama said during the ceremony, "I remember reading The Power Broker when I was 22 and being very interested in it. It probably helped me understand politics better." In 2011, Caro received the BIO Award from Biographers International Organization for making important contributions to the art of writing about real people’s lives.

• 1964 – The Society of Silurians Award for outstanding work in public service history for a series called "Misery Acres," which revealed dishonest real estate sales
• 1964 – The Deadline Club Award for excellent newspaper reporting
• 1965 – The Deadline Club Award for excellent newspaper reporting
• 1965–1966 – A Nieman Fellowship from Harvard University’s Nieman Foundation
• 1975 – The Washington Monthly American Political Book Award for The Power Broker
• 1975 – The Francis Parkman Prize from the Society of American Historians for The Power Broker
• 1975 – The Pulitzer Prize for Biography for The Power Broker
• 1975 – A Special Citation from the American Institute of Architects
• 1982 – The National Book Critics Circle Award for Best Nonfiction Book of the Year for The Path to Power
• 1983 – The Blue Pencil Award from the Columbia Daily Spectator
• 1983 – An Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters
• 1983 – The Carr P. Collins Award from the Texas Institute of Letters for The Path to Power
• 1983 – The Mencken Award for the best book of 1982 for The Path to Power
• 1986 – The Gold Medal in Biography from the American Academy of Art and Letters
• 1990 – The National Book Critics Circle Award for Best Nonfiction Book of the Year for Means of Ascent
• 1991 – The Washington Monthly American Political Book Award for Means of Ascent
• 2002 – The Power Broker was chosen by the Modern Library as one of the 100 greatest nonfiction books of the twentieth century
• 2002 – The National Book Award for Master of the Senate
• 2003 – The Los Angeles Times Book Award in Non-Fiction for Master of the Senate
• 2003 – The Carl Sandburg Award in Literature for Master of the Senate
• 2003 – The John Steinbeck Award in Literature for Master of the Senate
• 2003 – The Pulitzer Prize for Biography for Master of the Senate
• 2008 – Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters
• 2009 – Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• 2010 – Inducted into the New York Writers Hall of Fame
• 2010 – The National Humanities Medal
• 2011 – The BIO Award from Biographers International Organization for advancing the art of biography
• 2012 – Finalist for the National Book Award (Nonfiction) for The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson
• 2012 – Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award (Biography) for The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson
• 2012 – The Los Angeles Times Book Award in Non-Fiction for The Passage of Power
• 2012 – The New York Historical Society American History Book Prize for The Passage of Power
• 2012 – The Mark Lynton History Prize for The Passage of Power
• 2012 – The Norman Mailer Prize for Biography
• 2016 – The National Book Award (Lifetime Achievement)
• 2025 – The Authors Guild Foundation’s Preston Award for Distinguished Service to the Literary Community

Family

After graduating from Princeton University, Robert Caro married Ina Joan Sloshberg, who was still a student at Connecticut College at the time. The Caros have one son, Chase Arthur, and three grandchildren who live in White Plains, New York.

Caro has said that his wife was essential in helping him write all five of his books. To help pay for The Power Broker, she sold their home and took a teaching job. She is the only other person who helped research his books.

Ina wrote a book titled The Road from the Past: Traveling Through History in France (1996). At a ceremony in 2011, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. called it "the essential traveling companion for all who love France and its history." A Newsweek reviewer named Peter Prescott said, "I would rather go to France with Ina Caro than with Henry Adams or Henry James." The book’s unique idea is so original that it surprised many readers. Ina often writes about her travels in France on her blog, Paris to the Past. In 2011, W. W. Norton published her second book, Paris to the Past: Traveling Through French History by Train.

Robert Caro had a younger sibling named Michael, who was a retired real estate manager. Michael passed away in 2018.

Caro’s son, Chase, admitted in 2007 to stealing more than $750,000 from three former clients during real estate deals. In 2008, Chase was sentenced to between 2 and a half to 7 and a half years in prison for stealing $310,000 from his grandparents’ trust fund. He agreed to pay back $1.1 million, which included money from a third theft. All his sentences were served at the same time. As of 2012, Chase worked in information technology.

Legacy

Because of Robert Caro's strong work habits and the large amount of work he produced, several authors have been compared to him and described as "Caro-esque," "Caro-like," or "in the Caro mold" for their own detailed research. These authors include Renata Adler, Wayne Barrett, Taylor Branch, David Garrow, Garrett Graff, Gerard Henderson, Jason Horowitz, Francis Jennings, Robert G. Kaiser, David Paul Kuhn, Roland Lazenby, Mark Lewisohn, David Maraniss, David McCullough, Edmund Morris, Roger Morris, David Nasaw, Les and Tamara Payne, Steven Pressfield, Michael Shnayerson, Lytton Strachey, Julia E. Sweig, William T. Vollmann, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's Research Department.

In 2011, Caro's high school, Horace Mann School, started giving the Robert Caro '53 Prize for Literary Excellence in the Writing of History. The award is presented each year at the school's main building. In 2017, the school named a classroom at Tillinghast Hall the "Robert A. Caro '53 History Classroom." Caro said this honor would make him "very happy."

The 2019 movie Motherless Brooklyn, directed by Edward Norton, is loosely based on the 1999 novel by Jonathan Lethem of the same name. The film was inspired by Caro's biography of Robert Moses, The Power Broker. León Krauze wrote in Slate that Norton's character in the film is similar to Caro himself.

In January 2020, the New-York Historical Society acquired Caro's complete collection of work, which includes "200 linear feet of material." Some of the collection will be digitized and made available to researchers in a special study area called the Robert A. Caro Study Space. A permanent exhibition named Robert Caro Working, after Caro's 2019 book Working, will be displayed at the Society's library. Caro said he was "very happy" because his "favorite aunt often took" him to the library, and he had also spoken there and "received awards" from the Society.

An exhibition called "Turn Every Page": Inside the Robert A. Caro Archive opened on October 22, 2021. It became the first permanent public display of an archive devoted to a living author in the United States. The title comes from advice given to Caro by Alan Hathway, then-editor of Newsday, during Caro's first investigative assignment as a young reporter. Hathway told Caro, "Turn every page. Never assume anything. Turn every goddamn page." This advice is the title of a 2022 documentary about Caro and editor Robert Gottlieb's collaborations, directed by Gottlieb's daughter, Lizzie Gottlieb.

Selected works

• Caro, Robert. (1974). The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York. New York: Knopf. ISBN 978-0-394-48076-3.
• Caro, Robert A. The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power. 1982. Alfred A. Knopf, New York. ISBN 0-394-49973-5. 882 pages, including 48 pages of illustrations.
• Caro, Robert A. The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Means of Ascent. 1990. Alfred A. Knopf, New York. ISBN 0-394-52835-2. 506 pages.
• Caro, Robert A. The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate. 2002. Alfred A. Knopf, New York. ISBN 0-394-52836-0. 1,167 pages.
• Caro, Robert A. The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Passage of Power. 2012. Alfred A. Knopf, New York. ISBN 978-0-679-40507-8. 752 pages.
• Caro, Robert A. Working. April 2019. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, New York. ISBN 978-0-525-65635-7. 240 pages.

• Zinsser, William Knowlton (ed.). Extraordinary Lives: The Art and Craft of American Biography. 2016. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-48617-3.

• Caro, Robert A. On Power. 2017. Audible. ISBN 978-1978664968. 1 hour and 42 minutes.

• Caro, Robert A. (February 3, 1991). "My Search for Coke Stevenson." The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved on July 29, 2020.
• Caro, Robert A. and Vonnegut, Kurt. "The Round Table: Fiction, Biography and the Use of Power." Hampton shorts: Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Interviews from the Hamptons and the East End. 1999. Hamptons Literary Publications, Water Mill, N.Y.
• Caro, Robert A. (August 27, 2008). "Opinion | Johnson's Dream, Obama's Speech." The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved on July 29, 2020.