By Laura L. Griffin 6/13/12 12:50pm

Algonquin Round Table

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What Fresh PR Initiative Is This?: Literary Greats on the Current Attempt to Reengineer the Algonquin Round Table

“This hotel is exactly how I would have imagined the Algonquin transforming itself in the 21st century,” announced Penguin Books CEO David Shanks to an attentive crowd last week.

A single person clapped and, realizing they were all alone, stopped.

Mr. Shanks continued, “It exudes the grandeur of Gotham and the dazzle of the iconic Mad Men design gone modern.” Mr. Shanks cleared his throat. “It’s really amazing.”

Last Monday, a group (of “top hotel and publishing executives as well as media industry influencers,” per a press release) was gathered at a private party to celebrate the grand reopening of the gut-renovated hotel and the launch of its new partnership with Penguin Books. Read More

By Gillian Reagan 1/06/09 5:18pm

All That Twitters

Early last month, John Hodgman, the bulbous-headed, bookish comedy writer who plays the PC in a popular series of Apple commercials, was at The Daily Show offices introducing the program’s producer, Miles Kahn, to Twitter: the “microblogging” platform that in 2008 became the latest social networking craze for geeks, writers, celebrities and media types. Read More

By Leon Neyfakh 11/08/07 5:56pm

Yesterday Is Today at Housingworks Publishing Party

Housingworks bookstore served gin and carrots last night; they were having a party and a lot of people who work in publishing were there. You could tell it was 2007 because it was a benefit for people living with AIDS and the DJ was playing some really recent Sonic Youth. But in some ways, it Read More

By George Gurley 12/15/03 12:00am

Power Punk: John Hodgman

McSweeney’s with milk and cookies; host warms up city’s icy literary tribe; Plimpton, Bloom figure prominently

John Hodgman was drinking a smoothie inside the cavernous Galapagos Art Space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Soon the 32-year-old would switch to rye whiskey. It was 7:30 p.m., and the place was filling up with the 100 or so people Read More