Down the rabbit-hole
Dennis Loy Johnson, author of MOBYLIVES, is scratching his head over the reception of Rogues’ Gallery at the tea party that is cultural society — and its curious absence from the shelves of the New York Public Library. It’s “getting a lot of buzz behind the scenes in New York literary circles,” he writes, “because, […]
The Plot Sickens
Today’s New York Observer confirms a story I didn’t want to believe — and didn’t repeat — when it was first reported a month ago: Rogues’ Gallery appears to have been silently banned by the New York Public Library, which received copies of the book from the distributor Baker & Taylor more than six weeks […]
“A great historical document,” says David Patrick Columbia
“The strange brouhaha over [Rogues’ Gallery] has kidnapped the baby, so to speak,” writes David Patrick Columbia in this morning’s New York Social Diary. “The established ones who preside as cultural assessors of the first order have declared the history ‘rubbish.’ They, of course, would know, having concealed any number of secrets themselves… I liked […]
Is the Rogues Gallery a racist gallery, too?
Even “big” books can’t always cover every aspect of a big story. This anonymous email arrived last night, describing another aspect of the Metropolitan Museum’s story, one I was aware of and hint at in the story of the controversial Harlem on My Mind exhibition of 1969, but didn’t research in greater depth because I […]
Why I love Facebook
A fascinating exchange is taking place on and around my Facebook profile — which has already helped balance the big-media blackout on coverage of Rogues’ Gallery. Earlier today, a longtime employee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art posted a comment in response to the blog post directly below (which was cross-posted on Facebook). It said: […]
“This can’t be right.” But it can happen here.
London media blogger Jon Slattery condemns “the whole ghastly business” of the wealthy and litigious trying to chill sales and coverage of Rogues Gallery because it “paints the Metropolitan, its founders and its funders in a less than flattering light.”
“Page-turning,” says the Guardian
England’s Guardian proclaims Rogues Gallery a page-turner. And you can’t even buy the book there!
“Not for sale in the Met gift shop,” says Newsday
Newsday joined the growing ranks of New York newspapers willing to irritate the Metropolitan Museum of Art and its powerful supporters by giving full-page coverage to the “dishy… highly entertaining” Rogues’ Gallery this weekend — and confirming what Met Store employees have said privately, that though its customers often ask for it, it isn’t being […]
Quote of the Day: “A fight for New York”
“If The Observer is anything it’s a battle for New York,” Peter W. Kaplan, the just-departed and much-admired editor of the New York Observer, said last week. “It’s the fight for wit, for integrity, for real reporting, for real writing, and for not killing stories even when they irritate the publisher. A fight for the […]
“Book unveils secrets of the Met.”
“A gripping, glib and gossipy deconstruction of the curators, directors, donors and trustees who dominated the Met since its founding in 1870. Gross’ Met does the right thing infrequently, and then only under duress,” says the Tulsa World of Rogues’ Gallery. “Suppressing its antipathy to the masses… the museum did open its doors on Sundays. […]