It may inform the way you read the closing chapter of this saga to know a few details about how I wrote this story. I got the assignment on a Sunday night from my editor at New Times, John Lombardi. He told me the New York Times and the Daily News and New York Magazine itself all had reporters trying to get the story of how Clay Felker managed to lose his empire. To beat them, we would have to hit the publishing deadline for the next issue, which was a week away on the following Monday.
When we discussed this at the time New Times published it you told me you'd caught the principals at the brief peak moment for revelation. They'd just had time to digest what had happened and were still open before inevitably clamming up.
I forget what the final court proceeding was to seal the deal. A formality—neither Murdoch or Felker was in the room where that happened, but I was. (Kevin McAuliffe reported that in his VV history.) Felker had trashed my world and I wanted to see his around his ankles.
You mentioned.his admission he and Glaser had lost their way with the Voice. I know exactly what went wrong. The Voice had been a newspaper from first issue to Dan Wolf's last. Felker understood only magazines, and tried to turn the Voice into one. From his first post-Wolf paper, he traded immediacy for sensation. The Voice was never the Voice after Felker switched from having a news photos+bylined news/features front page, to a kaboom! Glaser-era cover. Newspapers have front pages, magazines have covers; they never got the difterence.
I'd forgotten I said that, but it's exactly right. Every one of them had been stuck with the blab needle and were itching to rat out Clay, each other, even Kay Graham. It was fucking delicious, especially taking it down in great gulps in just five days. Made me high as a kite. I recall taking a few beers to Murdoch's apartment in my Danish school bag and quaffing them during the interview. He didn't even react.
I just laughed—but after his life with Steve Dunleavy, Murdoch could hardly have been shocked by anything you did. Especially drink beer. (Not that Dunleavy was ever actually anything but decorous in Murdoch's presence.)
Very smart. When a subject is being beaten up in the press, letting one more guy have a go at him can only be a chance for a friendlier story. Except when it isn't ...
Felker didn't have a choice about talking to me. He knew nearly everyone on his board had ratted him out and that I had gotten to Murdoch. A few years later, he told me I had gotten everything right. He knew how badly he'd fucked up by then. We had lunch a few times, and I gave him some help when he became editor of Esquire, although I didn't write a piece for him while he was there. We couldn't agree on a subject. Again, he wanted celebrity profiles. I never did one then and haven't done one since. Not my strong suit.
Ha! It was mine. One of them threatened to sue. (Dr. David Reuben.) Another caused the Chicago Tribune to mandate that reporters and columnists use tape recorders. ("Louisiana Fats," the Cardinal who came from New Orleans to Chicago.)
For some reason I recently started re-reading HSTs "Fear and Loathing On The Campaign Trail '72", which begins with him ripping off pages to finish the book before deadline. Your description of knocking out your 9,000 words strikes a very similar chord. Thank you for sharing this.
Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 is a 1973 book that recounts and analyzes the 1972 presidential campaign in which Richard Nixon was re-elected President of the United States.[1] Written by Hunter S. Thompson and illustrated by Ralph Steadman, the book was largely derived from articles serialized in Rolling Stone throughout 1972.[2][3]
The book focuses almost exclusively on the Democratic Party's primaries and the breakdown of the party as it splits between the different candidates such as Ed Muskie and Hubert Humphrey. Of particular focus is the manic maneuvering of George McGovern's campaign during the Miami convention as they sought to ensure the Democratic nomination despite attempts by Humphrey and other candidates to block McGovern.
Thompson began his coverage of the campaign in December 1971, just as the race toward the primaries was beginning, from a rented apartment in Washington, D.C. (a situation he compared to "living in an armed camp, a condition of constant fear"). Over the next twelve months, in voluminous detail, he covered every aspect of the campaign, from the smallest rally to the raucous conventions.
An early fax machine was procured for Thompson after he inquired about the device while visiting venture capitalist Max Palevsky, who concurrently served as chairman of Xerox and Rolling Stone for several years in the early 1970s. Dubbing it "the mojo wire", Thompson used the nascent technology to capitalize on the freewheeling nature of the campaign and extend the writing process precariously close to printing deadlines, often haphazardly sending in notes mere hours before the magazine went to press. Fellow writers and editors would have to assemble the finished product with Thompson over the phone.
Like his earlier book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Thompson employed a number of unique literary styles in On the Campaign Trail, including the use of vulgarity and the humorous exaggeration of events. Despite the unconventional style, the book is still considered a hallmark of campaign journalism and helped to launch Thompson's role as a popular political observer.
If you ever write about HST have I got stories. Curse of Lono only exist b/c i wrestled it out of him with co-conspirators Ralph Steadman and Ian Ballantine.
I was friends with Hunter since 1969 when I was a lieutenant in the army and neither of us had two nickels to rub together. I spent the next several decades watching him disappear into a miasma of drugs, alcohol, and narcissism. Very, very sad to lose my friend. I have no interest in writing about him.
What I personally recall of a first reading of Fear& Loathing on the Campaign Trail is more the hyperbolic, frequently brilliant, bizarre as hell writing, and the level of detail in accounts of the "Muskie cries" episode and many others, a severe blow to Muskie's campaign which I believe was stoked by Roger Stone and the "Ratfuckers/Dirty Tricksters," (?) - the Dirty Tricks for Nixon, I already knew itself had a history going back to Nixon's first run for national office, the smearing and red-baiting in Nixon's 1946 U.S Congress race vs. Jerry Voorhis
*******{related tangent, as TDB article mentions "alleged" fixer for The Outfit (my characterization, article doesn't delve into it) in Hollywood, along with Johnny Roselli /b. Fillipo Sacco, - Sidney Korshak, never proved in a court of law as such, but Russo has a massive wall of evidence for it,
I don't trust Gus Russo on the JFK assassination much at all, but this is filled with far better researched material} *******
Again, Lucian I might have just posed that as a direct question, "Were you along for at least part of the ride recounted, confabulated, reported by HST?" figuring the answer must be, "of course!"
I loved this series .. i even did a deep dive into Carter Burden the other night .... all those old boldfaced NY City names of my younger days .. thank you .. I too was shocked by the Kay Graham sobbing interludes and wondered what Gail made of those ..
Boy did those Big Men close ranks when Kay called them up and told them to deny what they had said to me. I interviewed both Murdoch and Towbin in person, not over the phone, so I could see their faces when they told me about Graham crying. Murdoch was smirking. Towbin shook his head in amazement. As he said, he thought she was in love with Felker. Those were some great days back then, though, and being smack dab in the middle of it is something I wouldn't trade for a million dollars. I love reading your stuff mentioning the bold face names in the gay community back then -- Henry Geldzahler and many others. I used to see Henry at art openings in SoHo when there were about two galleries down there. The buildings next to 420 West Broadway still had businesses that collected cardboard and rags and bundled them and shipped them off in trucks from loading docks along the street. One of the things I miss most when I've walked through SoHo in recent years is those loading docks. There was something wonderful about living in a place where trucks backed up to docks next to doors that artists and writers walked in and out of every day. Great times, yes inded.
Great stuff, it goes far beyond "Inside Journalism," although fascinating as such, especially given the more recent history of the Murdochs via their insidious Fox News lies and distortions, and the various debacles over the years, culminating in a bogus "mutually agreed parting of the ways" subterfuge, when Tucker Carlson was undoubtedly told he could either quit or be fired --- with much more to come, stay tuned for Staymatic!
People who, for whatever reasons, don't read all 3 installments are missing out, in my view. I can't
help thinking of a book I read years ago, with equally interesting insights, anecdotes, and a larger frame of reference than just "inside journalism," also controversial, as usual! etc.
Here at The New Yorker is a 1975 best-selling book by American writer Brendan Gill, writer and drama critic for The New Yorker magazine.
The book
Published on the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of The New Yorker, Gill's book is a semi-autobiographical memoir built around his time as an editor and writer at the magazine and written in the style of the "Talk of the Town" section to which Gill contributed for many years. Much of the book is devoted to anecdotes about his best-known colleagues, such as cartoonists Peter Arno, Charles Addams, and James Thurber; writers Truman Capote, John Updike, S.J. Perelman, and John O'Hara; critics Wolcott Gibbs and Robert Benchley; and editors Katharine White, Harold Ross, and William Shawn.
Gill admits in the introduction that his view of his colleagues is at times highly biased. He detested James Thurber, for instance, calling him a "malicious man"[1] who for his own amusement instigated a number of feuds between New Yorker writers, including one between Gill himself and writer John O'Hara over a book review.[2] Despite respecting Harold Ross for his work on the magazine, Gill reveals his "primitive" and "embarrassing" racism, which excluded blacks from even the most menial positions with the magazine and kept black writers and even article subjects out of its pages.[3] His portrait of William Shawn, however, appeared unsound to some reviewers; Gill portrayed Shawn as a gentle and kind man, but also showed Shawn firing an employee simply for displaying mildly bad taste while off duty.[4] Gill also describes Shawn's well-known prudery, including his reactions to the phrase "cow paddies" and to Henry Green's inspiration for his novel Loving,[5] yet refrains from mentioning that for many years Shawn was leading a double life, with a wife and children in the suburbs and a mistress (Lillian Ross, a colleague who later wrote about the affair) and stepson in the city.[6]
Reception
Here at The New Yorker first appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list on March 16, 1975, remaining on the list for sixteen weeks and reaching No. 2 on May 25.[7] It was reprinted in paperback both by Random House and by Berkley Medallion Press. A revised edition was published in 1987 with a new introduction, and was reprinted in 1997, the year of Gill's death.
Reviews
Reviews of Here at The New Yorker were favorable. Christopher Lehmann-Haupt wrote in The New York Times Book Review that "Mr. Gill kept me in a continual state of mirth", adding that Gill's barbs against his colleagues "are more like a cloud of affectionate bumble bees—these paragraphs full of facts: they settle everywhere and sting all."[4] Other positive reviews were published in The Washington Post,[8] the Christian Science Monitor,[9] and Time magazine,[10] where reviewer Paul Gray said, "A seasoned New Yorker writer can make even New Yorker writers interesting."
Response by colleagues
Gill's subjects did not all share the enthusiasm of his more positive reviewers. Fellow writer E.J. Kahn called the book "that Gill book" in his own About The New Yorker and Me: A Sentimental Journal, and Nora Ephron said in Esquire (as quoted in Gill's 1997 New York Times obituary) that it "seems to me one of the most offensive books I have read in a long time".[11] Gill wrote in his introduction to the 1987 edition (which was also printed in The New York Times)[12] that Katharine White wept for two days over his portrayal of her, which he defends as accurate. He then accused E. B. White of spearheading a "strenuous campaign of falsehoods" against him, including the claim that William Shawn, the editor of the magazine at the time the book was first published, had not been allowed to read the book before publication. Gill asserted that he had read the book twice in manuscript and had even contributed the book's title, and in turn relates a number of unflattering stories about the recently deceased White, at least two of which were contested by Leo M. Dolenski in a letter to the editor of the Times. Gill's reply to Dolenski's letter instigated a feud between the two.[13]
References
Gill, Brendan. Here at the New Yorker. New York: Da Capo Press, 1997. ISBN 0-306-80810-2.
Notes
1. Gill, Brendan. Here at The New Yorker. Berkley Medallion Edition, 1976. ISBN 0-425-03043-1. P. 188.
2. Gill, op.cit., pp. 284-301.
3. Gill, op.cit., p. 186-192.
4. "A Swarm of Bumblebees". Review of Here at The New Yorker by Christopher Lehmann-Haupt. The New York Times Book Review, February 10, 1975. Accessed March 22, 2009.
5. Gill, op.cit., p. 415
6. Here But Not Here: My Life with William Shawn and The New Yorker by Lillian Ross. New York: Counterpoint Press, 2001. ISBN 1-58243-110-8.
7. New York Times Best Seller lists - 1975.
8. "For 50 Years, The Talk of the Town". Review by Colman McCarthy. Washington Post, January 25, 1975, p. A18.
9."50 Years of Wit". Review by Roderick Nordell. Christian Science Monitor, February 19, 1975, p. 14.
10. "Anniversary Waltz". Review by Paul Gray. Time, February 24, 1975. Accessed March 22, 2009.
11 Brendan Gill Dies at 83. Herbert Muschamp, The New York Times, December 29, 1997. Accessed March 23, 2009.
12. "Still Here at The New Yorker". Gill, Brendan. The New York Times, October 4, 1987. Accessed March 22, 2009.
"13.White at The New Yorker". Letter to the Editor by Leo M. Dolenski with reply by Brendan Gill. The New York Times, November 1, 1987. Accessed March 23, 2009.
I’m revving up my engines to get a start on the latest instalment on the Hostile Takeover Saga you produced all these years ago as a young reporter on a rented typewriter.
Love how you set the scene. Let the chits fall where they may. The young stud is making his mark on this unfolding tale of shameless greed. It may take me awhile, but to the avid reader, this is a feast for the mind. In common parlance, a mind-fuck for the ages. The stuff legends are made of. Wish me luck!!
Not so much a bastard, even though Murdoch is, but a stealthy businessman. I still miss the VV and wish it could have separated itself. Stories like this remind of why I stay in non-profit.
'Sensational' is probably too 'tabloid' a word to describe your article, but damn... that was good.
When we discussed this at the time New Times published it you told me you'd caught the principals at the brief peak moment for revelation. They'd just had time to digest what had happened and were still open before inevitably clamming up.
I forget what the final court proceeding was to seal the deal. A formality—neither Murdoch or Felker was in the room where that happened, but I was. (Kevin McAuliffe reported that in his VV history.) Felker had trashed my world and I wanted to see his around his ankles.
You mentioned.his admission he and Glaser had lost their way with the Voice. I know exactly what went wrong. The Voice had been a newspaper from first issue to Dan Wolf's last. Felker understood only magazines, and tried to turn the Voice into one. From his first post-Wolf paper, he traded immediacy for sensation. The Voice was never the Voice after Felker switched from having a news photos+bylined news/features front page, to a kaboom! Glaser-era cover. Newspapers have front pages, magazines have covers; they never got the difterence.
I'd forgotten I said that, but it's exactly right. Every one of them had been stuck with the blab needle and were itching to rat out Clay, each other, even Kay Graham. It was fucking delicious, especially taking it down in great gulps in just five days. Made me high as a kite. I recall taking a few beers to Murdoch's apartment in my Danish school bag and quaffing them during the interview. He didn't even react.
I just laughed—but after his life with Steve Dunleavy, Murdoch could hardly have been shocked by anything you did. Especially drink beer. (Not that Dunleavy was ever actually anything but decorous in Murdoch's presence.)
" Every one of them had been stuck with the blab needle..."
great image, sure made me smile.
How on earth did you get the interview with Murdoch?
I gave his handlers a taste of what the others were saying about him.
Very smart. When a subject is being beaten up in the press, letting one more guy have a go at him can only be a chance for a friendlier story. Except when it isn't ...
Felker didn't have a choice about talking to me. He knew nearly everyone on his board had ratted him out and that I had gotten to Murdoch. A few years later, he told me I had gotten everything right. He knew how badly he'd fucked up by then. We had lunch a few times, and I gave him some help when he became editor of Esquire, although I didn't write a piece for him while he was there. We couldn't agree on a subject. Again, he wanted celebrity profiles. I never did one then and haven't done one since. Not my strong suit.
Ha! It was mine. One of them threatened to sue. (Dr. David Reuben.) Another caused the Chicago Tribune to mandate that reporters and columnists use tape recorders. ("Louisiana Fats," the Cardinal who came from New Orleans to Chicago.)
I was talking about Murdoch.
Out-foxed Murdoch.
(Couldn't resist)
Shadowcloud thanks for the like.
Given your AKA you might like a book about a friend of mine written by a friend of mine (now deceased).
"A SHADOW IN THE CITY"
by Charles Bowden.
Chuck woukd have liked the scene you have in the circle on this substack post.
Shadowcloud the best book is the paperback by First Harvest Edition 2006.
As it has a lot more info
For some reason I recently started re-reading HSTs "Fear and Loathing On The Campaign Trail '72", which begins with him ripping off pages to finish the book before deadline. Your description of knocking out your 9,000 words strikes a very similar chord. Thank you for sharing this.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_and_Loathing_on_the_Campaign_Trail_%2772
Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 is a 1973 book that recounts and analyzes the 1972 presidential campaign in which Richard Nixon was re-elected President of the United States.[1] Written by Hunter S. Thompson and illustrated by Ralph Steadman, the book was largely derived from articles serialized in Rolling Stone throughout 1972.[2][3]
The book focuses almost exclusively on the Democratic Party's primaries and the breakdown of the party as it splits between the different candidates such as Ed Muskie and Hubert Humphrey. Of particular focus is the manic maneuvering of George McGovern's campaign during the Miami convention as they sought to ensure the Democratic nomination despite attempts by Humphrey and other candidates to block McGovern.
Thompson began his coverage of the campaign in December 1971, just as the race toward the primaries was beginning, from a rented apartment in Washington, D.C. (a situation he compared to "living in an armed camp, a condition of constant fear"). Over the next twelve months, in voluminous detail, he covered every aspect of the campaign, from the smallest rally to the raucous conventions.
An early fax machine was procured for Thompson after he inquired about the device while visiting venture capitalist Max Palevsky, who concurrently served as chairman of Xerox and Rolling Stone for several years in the early 1970s. Dubbing it "the mojo wire", Thompson used the nascent technology to capitalize on the freewheeling nature of the campaign and extend the writing process precariously close to printing deadlines, often haphazardly sending in notes mere hours before the magazine went to press. Fellow writers and editors would have to assemble the finished product with Thompson over the phone.
Like his earlier book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Thompson employed a number of unique literary styles in On the Campaign Trail, including the use of vulgarity and the humorous exaggeration of events. Despite the unconventional style, the book is still considered a hallmark of campaign journalism and helped to launch Thompson's role as a popular political observer.
Insider look at the political campaigns (More at:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_and_Loathing_on_the_Campaign_Trail_%2772
Gee, I didn't know we were plugging Thompson's book. You'll find me in there in his coverage of the 72 Republican convention. Strange times.
If you ever write about HST have I got stories. Curse of Lono only exist b/c i wrestled it out of him with co-conspirators Ralph Steadman and Ian Ballantine.
I was friends with Hunter since 1969 when I was a lieutenant in the army and neither of us had two nickels to rub together. I spent the next several decades watching him disappear into a miasma of drugs, alcohol, and narcissism. Very, very sad to lose my friend. I have no interest in writing about him.
Should have guessed as much!
What I personally recall of a first reading of Fear& Loathing on the Campaign Trail is more the hyperbolic, frequently brilliant, bizarre as hell writing, and the level of detail in accounts of the "Muskie cries" episode and many others, a severe blow to Muskie's campaign which I believe was stoked by Roger Stone and the "Ratfuckers/Dirty Tricksters," (?) - the Dirty Tricks for Nixon, I already knew itself had a history going back to Nixon's first run for national office, the smearing and red-baiting in Nixon's 1946 U.S Congress race vs. Jerry Voorhis
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Voorhis, and later smearing and red-baiting against
an opponent born in Brooklyn:
wams.nyhistory.org/growth-and-turmoil/cold-war-beginnings/helen-gahagan-douglas/
--- attacking her as the "Pink Lady" and much worse, pioneered by the vile Murray Chotiner, from having read about it in the late 1960s.
www.thedailybeast.com/tricky-dick-vs-the-pink-lady ---
*******{related tangent, as TDB article mentions "alleged" fixer for The Outfit (my characterization, article doesn't delve into it) in Hollywood, along with Johnny Roselli /b. Fillipo Sacco, - Sidney Korshak, never proved in a court of law as such, but Russo has a massive wall of evidence for it,
www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-outfit-gus-russo/1024360842
I don't trust Gus Russo on the JFK assassination much at all, but this is filled with far better researched material} *******
Again, Lucian I might have just posed that as a direct question, "Were you along for at least part of the ride recounted, confabulated, reported by HST?" figuring the answer must be, "of course!"
What an amazing story and account! Someone mentioned making a movie out of it
the other day and that would be pretty phenomenal!
Great scribbling.
Real reporters record the truth. Thats when a pen becomes a sword.
I loved this series .. i even did a deep dive into Carter Burden the other night .... all those old boldfaced NY City names of my younger days .. thank you .. I too was shocked by the Kay Graham sobbing interludes and wondered what Gail made of those ..
Boy did those Big Men close ranks when Kay called them up and told them to deny what they had said to me. I interviewed both Murdoch and Towbin in person, not over the phone, so I could see their faces when they told me about Graham crying. Murdoch was smirking. Towbin shook his head in amazement. As he said, he thought she was in love with Felker. Those were some great days back then, though, and being smack dab in the middle of it is something I wouldn't trade for a million dollars. I love reading your stuff mentioning the bold face names in the gay community back then -- Henry Geldzahler and many others. I used to see Henry at art openings in SoHo when there were about two galleries down there. The buildings next to 420 West Broadway still had businesses that collected cardboard and rags and bundled them and shipped them off in trucks from loading docks along the street. One of the things I miss most when I've walked through SoHo in recent years is those loading docks. There was something wonderful about living in a place where trucks backed up to docks next to doors that artists and writers walked in and out of every day. Great times, yes inded.
Great stuff, it goes far beyond "Inside Journalism," although fascinating as such, especially given the more recent history of the Murdochs via their insidious Fox News lies and distortions, and the various debacles over the years, culminating in a bogus "mutually agreed parting of the ways" subterfuge, when Tucker Carlson was undoubtedly told he could either quit or be fired --- with much more to come, stay tuned for Staymatic!
People who, for whatever reasons, don't read all 3 installments are missing out, in my view. I can't
help thinking of a book I read years ago, with equally interesting insights, anecdotes, and a larger frame of reference than just "inside journalism," also controversial, as usual! etc.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_at_The_New_Yorker
Here at The New Yorker
First edition (publ. Random House)
Here at The New Yorker is a 1975 best-selling book by American writer Brendan Gill, writer and drama critic for The New Yorker magazine.
The book
Published on the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of The New Yorker, Gill's book is a semi-autobiographical memoir built around his time as an editor and writer at the magazine and written in the style of the "Talk of the Town" section to which Gill contributed for many years. Much of the book is devoted to anecdotes about his best-known colleagues, such as cartoonists Peter Arno, Charles Addams, and James Thurber; writers Truman Capote, John Updike, S.J. Perelman, and John O'Hara; critics Wolcott Gibbs and Robert Benchley; and editors Katharine White, Harold Ross, and William Shawn.
Gill admits in the introduction that his view of his colleagues is at times highly biased. He detested James Thurber, for instance, calling him a "malicious man"[1] who for his own amusement instigated a number of feuds between New Yorker writers, including one between Gill himself and writer John O'Hara over a book review.[2] Despite respecting Harold Ross for his work on the magazine, Gill reveals his "primitive" and "embarrassing" racism, which excluded blacks from even the most menial positions with the magazine and kept black writers and even article subjects out of its pages.[3] His portrait of William Shawn, however, appeared unsound to some reviewers; Gill portrayed Shawn as a gentle and kind man, but also showed Shawn firing an employee simply for displaying mildly bad taste while off duty.[4] Gill also describes Shawn's well-known prudery, including his reactions to the phrase "cow paddies" and to Henry Green's inspiration for his novel Loving,[5] yet refrains from mentioning that for many years Shawn was leading a double life, with a wife and children in the suburbs and a mistress (Lillian Ross, a colleague who later wrote about the affair) and stepson in the city.[6]
Reception
Here at The New Yorker first appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list on March 16, 1975, remaining on the list for sixteen weeks and reaching No. 2 on May 25.[7] It was reprinted in paperback both by Random House and by Berkley Medallion Press. A revised edition was published in 1987 with a new introduction, and was reprinted in 1997, the year of Gill's death.
Reviews
Reviews of Here at The New Yorker were favorable. Christopher Lehmann-Haupt wrote in The New York Times Book Review that "Mr. Gill kept me in a continual state of mirth", adding that Gill's barbs against his colleagues "are more like a cloud of affectionate bumble bees—these paragraphs full of facts: they settle everywhere and sting all."[4] Other positive reviews were published in The Washington Post,[8] the Christian Science Monitor,[9] and Time magazine,[10] where reviewer Paul Gray said, "A seasoned New Yorker writer can make even New Yorker writers interesting."
Response by colleagues
Gill's subjects did not all share the enthusiasm of his more positive reviewers. Fellow writer E.J. Kahn called the book "that Gill book" in his own About The New Yorker and Me: A Sentimental Journal, and Nora Ephron said in Esquire (as quoted in Gill's 1997 New York Times obituary) that it "seems to me one of the most offensive books I have read in a long time".[11] Gill wrote in his introduction to the 1987 edition (which was also printed in The New York Times)[12] that Katharine White wept for two days over his portrayal of her, which he defends as accurate. He then accused E. B. White of spearheading a "strenuous campaign of falsehoods" against him, including the claim that William Shawn, the editor of the magazine at the time the book was first published, had not been allowed to read the book before publication. Gill asserted that he had read the book twice in manuscript and had even contributed the book's title, and in turn relates a number of unflattering stories about the recently deceased White, at least two of which were contested by Leo M. Dolenski in a letter to the editor of the Times. Gill's reply to Dolenski's letter instigated a feud between the two.[13]
References
Gill, Brendan. Here at the New Yorker. New York: Da Capo Press, 1997. ISBN 0-306-80810-2.
Notes
1. Gill, Brendan. Here at The New Yorker. Berkley Medallion Edition, 1976. ISBN 0-425-03043-1. P. 188.
2. Gill, op.cit., pp. 284-301.
3. Gill, op.cit., p. 186-192.
4. "A Swarm of Bumblebees". Review of Here at The New Yorker by Christopher Lehmann-Haupt. The New York Times Book Review, February 10, 1975. Accessed March 22, 2009.
5. Gill, op.cit., p. 415
6. Here But Not Here: My Life with William Shawn and The New Yorker by Lillian Ross. New York: Counterpoint Press, 2001. ISBN 1-58243-110-8.
7. New York Times Best Seller lists - 1975.
8. "For 50 Years, The Talk of the Town". Review by Colman McCarthy. Washington Post, January 25, 1975, p. A18.
9."50 Years of Wit". Review by Roderick Nordell. Christian Science Monitor, February 19, 1975, p. 14.
10. "Anniversary Waltz". Review by Paul Gray. Time, February 24, 1975. Accessed March 22, 2009.
11 Brendan Gill Dies at 83. Herbert Muschamp, The New York Times, December 29, 1997. Accessed March 23, 2009.
12. "Still Here at The New Yorker". Gill, Brendan. The New York Times, October 4, 1987. Accessed March 22, 2009.
"13.White at The New Yorker". Letter to the Editor by Leo M. Dolenski with reply by Brendan Gill. The New York Times, November 1, 1987. Accessed March 23, 2009.
“Oh the shark has, mighty teeth dear, and he keeps them pearly white.
Just a jackknife has MacHeath dear. And he keeps it out of sight…”
from “Mack the Knife”
Bertolt Brecht
It’s the old story: know your enemy. But even more important:
Know yourself.
Murdock mastered the fine art of corporate takeovers, but has he managed to figure out the cost of self-deception? Stay tuned!
Whew! Great article. What a story.
I’m revving up my engines to get a start on the latest instalment on the Hostile Takeover Saga you produced all these years ago as a young reporter on a rented typewriter.
Love how you set the scene. Let the chits fall where they may. The young stud is making his mark on this unfolding tale of shameless greed. It may take me awhile, but to the avid reader, this is a feast for the mind. In common parlance, a mind-fuck for the ages. The stuff legends are made of. Wish me luck!!
Not so much a bastard, even though Murdoch is, but a stealthy businessman. I still miss the VV and wish it could have separated itself. Stories like this remind of why I stay in non-profit.
Nicely done.
Bravo.
Great story!
Woodward Bernstein Truscott IV - very Watergate-y