Thank goodness the eighth-floor apartment at 35 West Ninth Street is full of custom built-ins—the new owner will need a lot of shelf space for his sizable book collection.
Jonathan Galassi, publisher and president of Farrar, Straus and Giroux is leaving behind the bookish borough of Brooklyn for this sunny, Greenwich Village co-op. Read More
On Monday Farrar, Straus and Giroux acquired a biography of Blanche Knopf—the wife of Alfred A. Knopf, founder and namesake of Random House’s rival literary imprint—by Laura Claridge.
“What’s fascinating about it is this writer has access to a tremendous cache of papers,” FSG executive editor Ileene Smith told The Observer yesterday.
Although she was Read More
New York editors and publishers tend to speak of Amy Einhorn’s success as the product of an almost mystical editorial instinct. Colleagues cite Ms. Einhorn’s “good taste;” her nose, her eye, and her gut; her unique ability to pinpoint the kinds of books that thousands of people want to read. Most Read More
“I am a vest who has appeared on a Times Square billboard and many other fine photos that have included Jeffrey Eugenides,” says the Twitter description for @EugenidesVest, the outlet for the most ignominious item in the wardrobe of the novelist Jeffrey Eugenides. The vest gained national prominence after being featured in a billboard in Times Square, where it is shown flapping in the wind as Mr. Eugenides strides forth. Read More
When Barbara Epler received the news last week that Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer had won the Nobel Prize for literature, she had one reaction: “I said, ‘Call the printers!’” she recalled.
Ms. Epler is the president of New Directions, publisher of Mr. Tranströmer’s The Great Enigma: New Collected Poems, an anthology translated by the Scottish poet Robin Fulton. For New Directions, Mr. Tranströmer’s win was big news — by Friday its book was ranked #12 on Amazon, a rarity for the independent publisher, which is known for its commitment to publishing difficult poetry and literature in translation. Read More
Last week, The Observer discovered that before Middlesex writer Jeffrey Eugenides got socked in the face on NJ Transit, he enjoyed a $520 meal – complete with wine, cocktails, and deep conversation — from celebrated Central Park seafood spot Marea. His partner for the night was Farrar, Straus & Giroux head honcho Jonathan Galassi. Read More
Lydia Davis, David Means, and flavored vodka have far too many fans to fit on the second floor of the Russian Samovar. This was the lesson of last night’s Farrar, Straus, and Giroux reading.
The show was scheduled to start at 7; by 7:05, Samovar proprietor Roman Kaplan had placed a velvet rope at the Read More
Remember that mesmerizing video of New Yorker literary critic James Wood finger-drumming in his kitchen while his children shriek with delight? It went up back in November, when the publishing industry was melting down and nothing good at all was happening anywhere. Well, your chance to see Mr. Wood perform his secret talent live Read More
Robert Giroux, who discovered and edited some of the most unusual and paradigm-shifting voices in 20th century fiction, died today at his home in Tinton Falls, New Jersey, at the age of 94. Here’s the obituary from the New York Times, for now:
If the flamboyant Roger Straus presented the public face of Farrar, Read More
Reporters at The Australian are trying to turn up the heat on Ishmael Beah, the former child soldier from Sierra Leone whose memoirs, A Long Way Gone, they have been questioning in print since last month. Over the weekend, the paper published a story describing records from Mr. Beah’s time in grade school, Read More
