Dan Duray | The New York Observer

Magnate Museum Attracts Top Talent

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 20:00:32 -0400

Maybe you saw Colin Bailey, the chief curator of the Frick Collection, on Charlie Rose two Thursdays ago. He was the well-coiffed Englishman in glasses whose on-point wit caused guest host Jon Meacham to conduct the entire interview with a genteel smile plastered across his face. How did Henry Clay Frick make his first acquisition?

"Made a lot of money," said Mr. Bailey, beginning his answer.

"That always helps," Mr. Meacham said warmly.

The...

The Great Game

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 20:00:11 -0400

"We like spies," said Ken Auletta. The Transom was at a book party Wednesday night for Jennet Conant's A Covert Affair, which concerns Julia Child's O.S.S. service, talking with the New Yorker writer and with Sports Illustrated group editor Terry McDonell. "We're looking for them," Mr. Auletta said, glancing around the party. "We haven't found any, though."

"I have identified several," Mr. McDonell said. "As always, Ken requires numerous sources, which get in the...

Theater in the Ground: Legal Wrangling Ties Up St. Ann's Move Across the Street

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 17:57:09 -0400

A Brooklyn judge on Friday blocked a plan that would allow the celebrated theater St. Ann's Warehouse to move to an abandoned tobacco warehouse across the street in Dumbo.

Some background: We reported earlier that the theater was in competition with the LAVA dance troupe over which organization would earn the right to build something crazy in the warehouse. LAVA opted for a pyramid that, crazy though it may have been, eventually lost out on...

Candace Bushnell Sells Two New YA Books

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 15:16:52 -0400

HarperCollins will publish two more young adult novels by Observer alum Candace Bushnell. Ms. Bushnell's first foray into the genre, The Carrie Diaries, hit stores last spring and explored the Sex and the City character in her youth. The follow-up, Summer and the City, hits stores this spring for a grand total of four planned or published teen books from Ms. Bushnell.

Ms. Bushnell's people weren't available for comment and her publisher, the imprint...

Random House Buys Screenwriter Self-Help Book

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 13:17:23 -0400

Random House announced today that they've purchased the rights for The Tools, a self-help book by Hollywood therapists Barry Michels and Phil Stutz that was referenced in a recent New Yorker profile that focused on Mr. Michels and his unique methods for pulling script jockeys out of their writerly funks. The book will be published under the Spiegel & Grau imprint in the U.S.

In the profile, the book is likened to The Secret...

2011 Guggenheim Fellows Announced

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 18:43:36 -0400

The 2011 Guggenheim Fellowships have been announced! The website for the foundation that dispenses the $40,000 grants is on the fritz, but here are some selected winners from the 180 awarded the grant this year, partially culled from the press release:

Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia! Author and New York Times Magazine writer Jonathan Dee. Novelist Bonnie Jo Campbell, who "traveled with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus for five months, will...

Salander Gallery Director Found Guilty on One Charge, But How Helpful Was De Niro?

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 17:01:57 -0400

A Manhattan jury today found former Salander-O'Reilly Gallery director Leigh Morse guilty on one count of scheming to defraud, a charge that related to her conduct while she worked for Larry Salander's once-prestigeous gallery, which routinely sold paintings without telling their owners. The jury acquitted Ms. Morse of a second charge, grand larcency, that accused her of pilfering $65,000 from Robert De Niro, whose father's estate was run through the gallery and who testified...

Bob Dylan for the Prosecution

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 20:33:05 -0400

Georgetown professor Abbe Smith hadn't set out to defend William Zantzinger, but after analyzing the man's portrayal in Bob Dylan's "Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll," she found she couldn't help herself. It was a travesty. She'd brought slides that said so.

"It's not that I think he was a good guy, but I don't think he meant to kill her," she said at the "Bob Dylan and the Law" conference Monday.

"I'm a defense lawyer by...

Hipster Runoff: Taavo Somer to Williamsburg

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 13:16:24 -0400

Taavo Somer, proprietor of Freeman's and The Rusty Knot, will haul his unique aesthetic sensibilities across the river with a new restaurant on the Williamsburg waterfront, Courier-Life reports.

The plans to bring a restaurant to the neighborhood have been in the works for a while, but a recent City Council vote to rezone the proposed space on Wyeth Avenue means the path is now clear. The rezoning also O.K.'s a new apartment complex on the...

NYT Book Review Leaves Boldface Reviewer Unnamed

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 11:27:15 -0400

"Power, to be useful, must be understood in its components, including its limits. By the same token, ideals must be brought, at some point, into relationship with the circumstances the leader is seeking to affect. Ignoring that balance threatens policy with either veering toward belligerence from the advocates of power or toward crusades by the idealists." — The New York Times Book Review apologizes to anyone who read the...

Burning Bright: Téa Obreht Sells Sophomore Novel for Six-Figures

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 18:39:22 -0400

The young team that brought you The Tiger's Wife, the first novel from "20 Under 40"-ite Téa Obreht, has reassembled for the author's next book in a deal worth at least $500,000 according to Publisher's Marketplace.

The Tiger's Wife debuted last month on The New York Times' bestseller list and the paper made much of the fact that everyone involved in the deal was on the younger side, specifically, Ms. Obreht (25), her agent...

McNally Jackson's Book Machine Breaks During Radio Segment About How Great It Is

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 12:36:50 -0400

So WNYC finally gets around to doing a little something on the on-demand book machine at McNally Jackson and what happens? The darn thing jams up in the middle of printing India in World Politics.

"I think we're having not a very good day," said a patient customer. As an April Fools prank it's about a B-, machine, but good...

Seriously, Though: Who Found The Pale King?

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 14:29:11 -0400

Everyone loves a good literary discovery myth (think Emily Dickinson's dresser), but the accompanying myth for David Foster Wallace's The Pale King has been surprisingly hard to nail down. Lev Grossman's review of the book for Time, out today, begins with his version.

Two months after the writer David Foster Wallace killed himself, his agent [Bonnie Nadell], accompanied by his widow, went into his garage office to look through his papers. It was Thanksgiving...

Dana Perino to Crown Forum

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 10:53:59 -0400

Publisher's Marketplace reports that former White House spokeswoman Dana Perino has been named editorial director for Crown Forum, the conservative imprint home to George Will, Joe Scarborough and Ann Coulter.

Ms. Perino is expected to "acquire and edit six to eight titles annually," and will work out of Washington D.C.

Since leaving the Bush administration, Ms. Perino has been working as a Fox News...

In Flux Art, Naked Meets Nonsense Meets Lard

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 19:51:54 -0400

The artist Clifford Owens walked out onto the stage of the theater in MoMA's Education and Research Center Friday, naked, his bare feet padding across a long sheet of paper laid along the floor. "I think I need some help," he said, as he slathered the length of his arms with an entire tub of Vaseline, still pacing. "There's just one part of it I haven't figured out yet. Can I get a volunteer?"

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