NEW YORK — Since the release a year ago of the acclaimed documentary “Turn Every Page,” Robert Caro has been feeling a bit like a movie star.
“I walk up Broadway and kids recognize me,” the historian and author of “The Power Broker” says. “If I linger a bit, they start talking about a chapter that they like. It’s so wonderful.”
The 88-year-old Caro, winner of virtually every literary prize, has long held at least semi-celebrity status. His better known admirers range from Conan O’Brien to former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, and impatient readers regularly send emails to his publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, asking for an update on his fifth and final Lyndon Johnson book. (Still no release date in sight, Caro says.)
On this December morning, he’s seated at a small table in the gift shop of the New York Historical Society, engaged in another kind of ritual for public figures: autographs, available to anyone who buys one of his books from the society’s store or website.