Emily Witt
"Seems Glenn Beck and I chose the same day to announce our imprints. OK, Beck--it is ON," wrote Eamon Dolan on Twitter yesterday, when news broke that Glenn Beck will be expanding his empire of wild-eyed zealotry with Mercury Ink, a new publishing imprint with Simon & Schuster. Mr. Dolan, for his part, announced his departure from Penguin Press to head an eponymous non-fiction imprint at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt earlier this week. It will... MORE >
At last week's BookExpo America, Amazon managed to do what it had done so many times before: give traditional publishing houses an anxiety attack. This time, the company did so by hiring one of the old guard's own, Larry Kirshbaum. However, it was not merely the hire that scared book-industry insiders, but what it portended: Amazon was starting a traditional publishing house of its own, in New York. And even more worrisome were the... MORE >
"You should write about how boring BookExpo America is," New York literary agent Ira Silverberg told Transom. "Yeah, right," we thought. But then there we were, at a BEA kick-off party thrown by Flavorpill and Electric Literature at Le Bain, on the rooftop of the Standard Hotel, which someone remarked was like standing atop a giant Kindle. From the massive device, the expansive views of the ghostly spires of fogbound Manhattan were lovely, but few... MORE >
Amazon continues its inexorable expansion into book publishing with Thomas & Mercer, a mystery and thriller imprint that brings Amazon's total number of imprints to five, with onlookers expecting more to come.... MORE >
The interesting thing about Grantland, Bill Simmons' new sports and culture web site for ESPN, is not so much that Bill Simmons is starting a new web site, or that Malcolm Gladwell, Dave Eggers and Chuck Klosterman will be writing for it, or that there was some drama surrounding the hire of Deadspin's senior editor, Tommy Craggs.... MORE >
The jury's verdict is in, and it has found Raj Rajaratnam guilty on all 14 counts. Preet Bharara is gloating and lead prosecutor Jonathan Streeter has won a formidable battle in his biggest case yet (although the defense will certainly... MORE >
Last night the British writer and essayist Geoff Dyer gave a reading at McNally Jackson bookstore in Soho. As it usually does when Geoff Dyer comes to New York, the conversation quickly turned to Doughnut Plant, and whether Mr. Dyer had sought out his preferred vanilla bean doughnut since arriving in New York only a few hours before.... MORE >
The family of Antonio Calvo, the Princeton professor whose April 12 suicide was preceded by a controversial suspension, has issued a statement about the university's silence surrounding the circumstances of Dr. Calvo's departure from Princeton. The statement further undermines university president Shirley Tilghman's stance that no details about his situation can be disclosed, "on the principle of confidentiality and of respect for Antonio Calvo's privacy and that of his grieving... MORE >
In the aftermath of Osama bin Laden's death, publishers have clamored to sign deals about the event. Former Newsweek chief Jon Meacham is editing an e-book essay collection called "Beyond Bin Laden" for Random House. Peter Bergen has been signed by Crown to write the "definitive" book, tentatively called The Manhunt. One publisher, however, is ahead of the... MORE >
The people of Princeton University tend to communicate in a shared code. "The Dinky" means the train. "Wawa" means the store. "The Street" is the metonym for the eating clubs that line Prospect Avenue, the mansion-lined thoroughfare that bisects the campus. Discussion sections are better known as "precepts." And when the university suspends a popular lecturer with two weeks to go in the semester, it's not a suspension, or a dismissal, but an... MORE >
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Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, once claimed he was performing "God's work." Yet, after Goldman tripled Mr. Blankfein's base salary last year--even as profits fell--some of "His" more dedicated employees were inclined to disagree. In Jersey City on May 6, at the 2011 annual meeting of Goldman Sachs shareholders, investors will vote on a proposal put forth by the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Boston, the Sisters of Saint Notre Dame de Namur... MORE >
In 1975, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, widowed for the second time, was confronting the long and desolate road of leisure that unfurled bleakly before her. She decided to dabble in work. According to a recently published history, Jackie as Editor, by Greg Lawrence, a friend in the publishing business told her she might be able to get a job in books, despite the fact that she was not "really equipped" for the... MORE >
More than ten years after closing Tiger Management LLC, Julian Robertson is back! The famous hedge fund manager, who once averaged annual returns of 30 percent and had more than $20 billion in assets under management, has started the Tiger Accelerator Fund to seed the enterprises of young hedge fund talent. One such talent is his own heir apparent: the young Alexander Robertson, managing partner in the firm, former legislative assistant to Sen. Elizabeth... MORE >
Last Sunday morning, the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was passing through customs in the Beijing airport when he was approached by uniformed officers and detained. Mr. Ai, his traveling companion was told, had "other business" to attend to. Shortly thereafter, police officers raided his studio in Beijing. They interrogated employees and members of his family, and confiscated his... MORE >
Last November, the boutique imprint Twelve had a party at La Fonda del Sol restaurant. The venue is just above Grand Central Station and down the street from Grand Central Publishing, the Hachette division that oversees Twelve. There was an open bar. Platters of tapas circulated. More than 100 people were in attendance: many of the city's top agents, Hachette's leadership and some of the imprint's biggest writers, all there to meet Twelve's new... MORE >
