The Rogues of Sag Harbor
The John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor, Long Island, has hit upon a unique way to raise funds — selling tickets to dinners organized around new books chosen by the dinner hosts. For the last night of its fourth annual One for the Books dinner, October 24th, it has included Rogues’ Gallery in its […]
“Money Makes Money…
… and the money money makes makes more money,” Benjamin Franklin once said. That’s certainly true of Steven Mnuchin, the banking son of a Goldman Sachs banker, who has put his A-Line apartment at 740 Park on the market — sort of, it’s not on his broker’s web site — for $37.5 million and inspired […]
Astor Trial Ends: Guilty As Charged
A jury just found Brooke Astor’s only child, Anthony Marshall, guilty on most counts of the indictment against him for looting his mother’s estate. But the story is far from over. An appeal is likely, my sources say, and a Westchester court still has to sort out competing claims regarding the late philanthropist’s estate. So […]
PEN vs. Libel Sword
The British chapter of P.E.N. has issued a strong condemnation of that nation’s Draconian libel laws — pointing out that because of them, many important books are simply not being published there. “The real victims here are authors and readers, who are missing out on important non-fiction stories about global finance and corruption in high […]
The Weight of Public Opprobrium
With a verdict in the criminal trial of Brooke Astor’s son Anthony Marshall imminent, David Patrick Columbia’s New York Social Diary takes its latest contrarian’s look at the subject and at the unindicted yet publicly convicted co-conspirator, Marshall’s second wife, Charlene. “Whether you like to think of her that way [or] not, Brooke Astor, maybe […]
Soup’s On! (or, Revolution No. 9)
Rogues’ Gallery returns to the Book Soup (West Hollywood) bestseller list this week. A thousand thanks to the best l’il book store in Los Angeles.
Inflation at The Wall Street Journal
In late August, the real estate column in the Wall Street Journal (locked behind a firewall, so no link, sorry!) ran a notable sentence about the subject of my penultimate book, 740 Park. It was notable because in a mere twenty words, it contained five errors. As the self-appointed guardian of 740 facts, I penned […]
Will Wonders Never Cease?
The amazing persistence of Rogues’ Gallery in the marketplace is an endless source of delight. Now, even the daily New York Times — which, as many have noted, has never deigned to notice this book about a major local cultural institution, and mysteriously cancelled a publication-week review by Janet Maslin — is paying attention. Albeit […]
Tom’s Foolery
Back in May, shortly after Rogues’ Gallery was published, the Metropolitan Museum’s new director, “Tapestry Tom” Campbell, addressed the subject of the book at a meeting of the museum’s board of trustees and told them, according to the minutes, “It has not received much coverage.” He spoke too soon. A summary of commentary on the […]
You won’t read this in WWD…
… but Laura Hunt gave a great cocktail party in Dallas for Rogues’ Gallery on Wednesday night — and helloooooo.com has the photos the regular chroniclers of such fashionable events won’t dare run. The book that must-not-be-named was “embraced by Dallas,” the site says. And SFR International (it stands for Social and Financial Responsibility) covers […]