Janet Groth

Janet Groth (born November 15, 1936) is an American writer and academic.

Groth was born on November 15, 1936, in Minnesota. 

She attended the University of Minnesota, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in August 1957. Around that time, she received a phone call telling her of some upcoming excitement in the area—a manned balloon flight into the stratosphere was being filmed for a CBS science show. Thinking that it would advance her dream of seeking fame and fortune as a writer, she managed to secure a temporary job as assistant to Arthur Zegart, the show’s writer-director. Zegart then invited her to send him a copy of my résumé should she decide to come to New York. He received the resume three weeks later while fishing in Maine with his friend E. B. White and promptly arranged an interview for Groth when White returned to his office at The New Yorker.

For 21 years, from 1957 to 1978, Groth worked for The New Yorker in various roles. During these years, thanks to the generosity of the magazine, she was able to complete her master's degree, obtain a doctorate, teach at various universities, and make extensive trips in Europe. 

In 1976, she taught a course at Vassar called The Contemporary Press. In 1978, she went to the University of Cincinnati. She was a lecturer in the Fulbright program in Norway, a visiting lecturer at Yale University, and most recently taught English in the summer courses at Columbia University in Manhattan, New York City. She was emeritus as a professor at the State University of New York in Plattsburgh. 

Groth has published three books:

• Edmund Wilson: Critic For Our Time (May 15, 1989) — a book about American literary critic Edmund Wilson
• Critic In Love: A Romantic Biography of Edmund Wilson (May 4, 2007) — a biography of American literary critic Edmund Wilson
• The Receptionist: An Education at The New Yorker (2012) — an autobiography

Groth is married to her husband Albert Aaron Lazar. The two met in the 1960s when Lazar was her landlord in West Village, New York.

She lives in New York City.