In his memoir the former Vanity Fair editor and man-about-town recalls the golden age of glossy magazines, when sales were in the millions and ‘the budget had no ceiling’I can’t pretend to be impartial. When I look at the artworks in my house I say “thank you, Graydon” from the bottom of my heart. He hired me as a writer when he first became editor of Vanity Fair in 1992 and paid me a salary beyond my wildest dreams, which I mainly spent on art. Alas, the largesse only lasted two years. I was meant to interview Hollywood stars but none of them would agree to be interviewed by me – I was blackballed by the formidable publicist Pat Kingsley. So after only writing about eight articles in two years we reluctantly agreed to part. But still – thank you, Graydon.He is an odd character – ebullient, apparently confident, he confesses in this memoir that he is always anxious. But he believes that an anxious editor is a good editor, and he really loves being an editor. Born in 1949, and growing up in Canada, where life revolved around skiing and hockey, he dreamed of living in New York, editing a big magazine, marrying and having a happy family. He achieved it all eventually, but it took a while. Although he never enrolled as a student, he got a job editing a magazine at the University of Ottawa called the Canadian Review, which attained a circulation of 50,000 but no profits. So then he landed a job as a floating writer at Time magazine in New York. As he says, Time is “now a... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2025-04-06 06:00:42 UTC ]
When it comes to high-calibre non-fiction, risk-averse trade publishing houses are producing too many copycat ‘smart thinking’ books that promise more than they deliver. But praise should be given to the university pressesAmid the ambient wails of doom about the publishing industry, I’d like to... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-06-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Men and fashion? The well-dressed man? Just look around, and you’ll see that it’s a concept reserved for glossy magazines and red carpets, but rarely found in reality. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-05-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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This week: Werner Herzog walks on ice, Oliver Sacks's new memoir, and the golden age of murder. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-04-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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With "Downton Abbey" reviving interest in the period between the two world wars, the publishing arm of the British Library has been releasing new editions of forgotten classics published in Britain’s golden age of mystery (considered to span most of the 1920s and ’30s) since 2012. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-03-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury chief executive Nigel Newton has compared the state of publishing to the bus teetering half-way off a cliff edge at the end of the film "The Italian Job", on the opening day of the 30th International Publishers Congress in Bangkok (today, 24th March). But HarperCollins c.e.o. Brian... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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HarperCollins has signed a book exploring the golden age of crime writing by author Martin... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-08-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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David and Lesley Jacobs Solmonson, co-authors of 'The 12 Bottle Bar,' explain why home bartenders don't need to stock $60 bottles of obscure, unpronounceable liqueurs to make drinks worthy of the golden age of cocktails. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-08-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Around the turn of the 20th century—a golden age for libraries in America—the Snead Bookshelf Company of Louisville, Ky., developed a new system for large-stack library shelving. Snead’s multifloor stack systems can still be seen in many important libraries built in that era, for instance at... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2014-04-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Mabel Normand, who came to fame at Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios, was one of the top comedy stars of the silent era. Besides appearing in several shorts with Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle, Normand also wrote, produced and directed these slapstick comedies. She's the subject of "Mabel and... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2014-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sixty thousand is the number of copies Christina Baker Kline thought her newest book, "Orphan Train," might sell in her “wildest dreams.” For a midlist author on her fifth novel, it was a lofty number. It turns out, it was also way too low. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-03-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sixty thousand is the number of copies Christina Baker Kline thought her newest book, "Orphan Train," might sell in her "wildest dreams." For a midlist author on her fifth novel, it was a lofty number. It turns out, it was also way too low. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-03-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The doom and gloom of the past few years appears to be over, with more publishing houses throwing open their doors to new writersBrigid Delaney Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-02-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A pair of best-selling works by staff writers for The New Yorker, Lawrence Wright's "Going Clear" and George Packer's "The Unwinding," were among 10 books chosen for the nonfiction long-list of the National Book Awards.Besides Mr. Wright's investigation of Scientology and Packer's bleak account... Continue reading at Crains New York
[ Crains New York | 2013-09-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Seth Godin traces the ups and downs of the independent bookstore since WWII, while proclaiming that today is "a golden age for books," crediting Amazon. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-08-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Aurum Press has won a five-way auction for a non-fiction title about the Golden Age of... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-09-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Mark Coker of Smashwords became the leader of indie ebook writers--including some with dirty minds--in a fight against censorship and PayPal. He also has strong feelings about the DOJ's ebook pricing lawsuit.Mark Coker is the CEO of Smashwords, an ebook publishing and distribution platform.... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2012-04-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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