Doubleday threw a party last night for Cindy Spiegel and Julie Grau, who were celebrating the official launch of their new imprint at Random House (read all about it).
Wait, no, it’s not an imprint—Doubleday Broadway president Stephen Rubin made a point of this during his speech. “A new publishing house!” he said, twice. “Not an imprint.” He emphasized that this does not happen every day.
The party was at the Helen Mills Event Space on 26th Street. Suze Orman was there. So were Warren St. John, Lee Siegel, Ed Conlon, and Rebecca Scott. All of these people are authors who are being published by Spiegel & Grau.
During Mr. Rubin’s speech, Ms. Spiegel and Ms. Grau stood to his left. After he was through toasting them—he said something about how they were “irresistible” but also skilled fiscally—the two of them talked about their authors, and how they were the heart of Spiegel & Grau.
Pretty soon they put on a video where a lot of those authors talked about the books they were writing. At the end, it cycled through all the authors pledging allegiance to the Spiegel & Grau brand. “I AM SPIEGEL & GRAU!” they said, one after the other.
Afterwards, everyone got back to the chocolate-covered strawberries and grilled shrimp. On the stereo, the Killers.
