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Only the closest of readers will ever realize that behind most authors a usually unnamed editor has nurtured, sustained and propelled the work from conception to publication.

Sometimes in a book’s introduction, the author will sneak in a note of appreciation to an editor as Bernard Bailyn did in his 1986 Pulitzer prize-winning volume, “Voyagers to the West,” when he wrote:

“And Jane Garrett ... in her capacity as editor at Knopf, has been a steady supporter of this project. She encouraged me to work the story out as far as the documents allowed; in this and other ways she manifested the great good will of an excellent publisher.”

Similarly, for dozens of other authors and scores of books, the unsung Jane Garrett, senior editor at Alfred A. Knopf, has proved to be an excellent publisher, as seven books she edited won Pulitzer Prizes in history, another won the National Book Award, and seven have been honored with the Bancroft Prize for history; the list of awards goes on for three typed pages.

The book and the author are the story, not the editor and that’s the way it should be.

Still, I felt the need to visit recently with Jane Garrett at her Fairway Village condominium in Leeds where she has lived since 1994 and from which she continues to edit some of the most important books being published in the field of American history.

One view from the living room provides a long and uninterrupted expanse of snow covered landscape, in another direction is a wall of book shelves displaying the fruit of Garrett’s labors with the works of some of the most respected contemporary historians, such as Laurel Ulrich, Michael Kammen, Charles Royster, Karen Armstrong, Jack Rakove, Pauline Maier, Jill Lapore, Helen Horowitz, and Howard Sachar..

“All these books, I’ve done, these are my favorites,” she says without any trace of boasting.

How many books does she edit a year? “It varies enormously, “she says. Three books she worked on came out last fall, “Rereading Sex,” by Smith College’s Helen Horowitz, “Executioner’s Current,” by Richard Moran of Mount Holyoke College and Mary Beth Norton’s “In the Devil’s Snare.” For Pantheon Books, she worked on “Yearning for the Land: A Search for the Importance of Place” by John Warfield Simpson.

Five more titles she edited have recently been published and reviewed: Bailyn’s “To Begin the World Anew”, which the New York Times reviewer called “a gem of a book”; Lizabeth Cohen’s “A Consumers’ Republic”; Thomas P. Slaughter’s “Exploring Lewis and Clark”; “Practicing Resurrection” by Nora Gallagher, and “A Wilderness So Immense” by Jon Kukla.

Upcoming titles Garrett is shepherding through the publishing maze are Lois Banner’s book about anthropologists Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict, David Price’s “Love and Hate in Jamestown” about John Smith and Pocahontas, and a book she’s clearly excited about, “And If I Perish”, the saga of Army nurses in World War II by Evelyn Monahan and Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee.” It’s an amazing story,” she says.

It has been a long time since Jane Garrett has actually toiled in New York City, the seat of book publishing and the home office of Knopf, the premier trade book publisher for almost a century. Book editing can be done at a distance, more so today than ever as a result of computers, e-mail, fax machines, modems, cable lines and satellite dishes.

Originally from Delaware, she graduated in 1957 from the University of Delaware with a degree in history. She later found herself drawn into the world of books, working as an acquisitions librarian at the prestigious Boston Athenaeum, and also finding reviewers for books for the New England Quarterly. In her spare time, she worked as a researcher for Bailyn, Harvard historian with whom she would have a long professional relationship.

By 1967, she and her husband moved to New York where he took a job at Antiques Magazine and she went to work for the New York Historical Society, editing its quarterly, a job she quickly found she did not enjoy.

Her former boss in Boston was a friend of the legendary publisher Alfred Knopf and “told Alfred he should interview me,” she recalls. “He did and hired me.”

Knopf himself was withdrawing from day-to-day responsibilities at his firm so Garrett became his special assistant. “He wanted to be absolutely certain books he cared most about someone would be bird-dogging, that was my task.”

Early on that meant becoming involved with non-fiction books, and especially the works of Latin American authors, a favorite category for Mr. Knopf, which entailed finding good translators, among other requirements.

She also handled how -to- books, including Thalassa Cruso’s gardening books, a popular title, “How to Design and Build Your Own Home,” which continues to sell, and “an unbelievable project that seemed in production forever,” Virginia and Lee McAlester’s “Field Guide to American Houses.”

“I read fiction for pleasure all the time,” she says, “but (as an editor) I just don’t feel competent in guiding fiction writing through the process.”

It was in the area of American history that Garrett become most comfortable, able to acquire and handle books on her own not long after joining the firm.

What precisely is the role of the anonymous book editor?

“I’m the connecting point between the author and agent and everything else that happens to the book, right through to the point of publication,” she explains. The work begins with reading a book proposal or a complete manuscript, and making a judgment as to the project’s merit.

At that point, “I say I want to publish it” or not, she says. If it is a work by an author Knopf has not previously published, she will show the manuscript to a colleague. Then the firm’s paperback imprint, Vintage, will weigh in as to potential softcover sales. The marketing department is consulted, and the numbers are run by the number crunchers.

Finally, she explains, “the whole package is delivered to Sonny Mehta - our boss - and he says yes or no.” She does not win every battle, some of her recommendations are rejected or books she felt strongly should be published did not sell well.

Once the book is under contract, she works with the author as chapters are submitted or the finished manuscript delivered. “I give feedback on a mega level,” she explains. “What needs to be cut, about the organization, what does nor does not have to be illuminated. We need authors to be sensible, they can lose perspective. I have had to ask people to go back and cut, often a huge amount.”

With the books that are accepted for publication, the editor’s job continues right through the process of approving of the design of the book and its dust jacket and the publicity for marketing the book.

Garrett prefers to have an entire year from the time a finished manuscript is in hand until the date of publication. First it goes to the copy-editing department, then the designer and production departments get involved, as do the marketing people. It is a world of details - the footnotes look too small to the author, the museum that loaned artwork for the dust jacket does not like the way the image has been cropped for the cover.

“Sometimes it is very very hard to get consensus,” she says.

A few books don’t take a year to make it into print; others can take as long as a decade before they come to fruition, she says. In the case of Bailyn’s 1986 “Voyagers to the West,” it was intended to be the first of several volumes, yet the second installment has yet to be published. “It’s a little like fishing - playing the fish - trying to land the book,” she says.

Garrett thrives on the design aspect of book publishing, almost as much as shaping the content.

“What first drew me to Knopf was the physical appearance of their books,” she said, echoing the view that Knopf books have traditionally been the most handsome and well crafted of the mainstream trade publishing firms.

For example, as long go as 1948 in a three-part series about publisher Alfred Knopf published in the New York, Geoffrey Hellman wrote: “Knopf books are notable for their colorful jacket, striking bindings, good paper and extraordinary variety of type faces ...”

That remains largely true today, Garrett says. “We work very hard to make books that are well designed with jackets that are eye catching. We still take immense pride in our books.”

Yet she is worried about the state of book publishing. “Everyone is very nervous is the best way to put it,” she says about sluggish sales and the rising price of books. “It’s not cheap to put these books out.”

In 1973 during the turmoil of a divorce, Garrett took a year’s leave of absence from Knopf to work as a volunteer in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. Returning from Africa, she resumed her work for Knopf, but did not remain for long in New York. She moved to Vermont to her family’s 200-acre farm in Starksboro; the financial choice being either stay in New York or give up the farm. She continued with her editing chores and, in the days before the fax machine, regularly met the overnight bus in Burlington to pick up designs and texts shipped from the home office.

She also became more deeply involved in religious work with the Episcopal Church and eventually was ordained as a priest.

When the farmer who had hayed her pastureland retired she was forced to sell the farm; “ a painful experience,” she recalls. She then moved to Cornwall, near Middlebury where she was becoming “busier and busier doing Knopf’s things, and doing less and less church work.”

Because of her work with Horowitz and Jill Ker Conway, former President of Smith College and whose memoirs Garrett edited, along with frequent visits to her best friend who lives in Ashfield, Garrett found herself tugged to move to this area.

“I decided after a horrendous winter - like the one we’re having,” she said, to make the break, especially when friends expressed interest in buying her Cornwall house. “Wow, this is a golden opportunity,” she recalls thinking.

The move here has been a hospitable one; she continues to work very nearly full-time. “The past year or so I’ve had about 10 balls in the air, with books in various stages of production.”

She makes infrequent trips to New York City, the epicenter of book publishing, preferring to keep her distance.

With Fairway Village huddled against the snow and bitter temperatures, I ask Jane Garrett if she has thought about doing her editing from some place like Santa Fe or Tucson.

“I like New England,” she replies. “New England is my spiritual home.”