How I Spent My September Vacation
And now, for someplace completely different. Today’s edition of AirMail features “Ace of Basins,” my postcard from the Arcachon Basin on the east coast of France, just west of Bordeaux. After a disappointing sojourn to the South of France in June (too much: crowds, bling, fusion restaurants), a week in Le Moulleau was as delightful […]
A Sneak Peek at Flight of the WASP
The first excerpt of Flight of the WASP is out today in Town & Country magazine’s Philanthropy issue. It’s the story of George Peabody, the sixth-generation American who founded the investment bank predecessor of today’s JPMorganChase, gave J. Pierpoint Morgan his start in business, and then transformed his acquisitive image to become the father of […]
Vogue’s Gallery
I make my debut in the Letters to the Editor column of the Washington Post Opinion Pages tomorrow with a comment on its Style section profile by its talented fashion scribe Rachel Tashjian last week of Andrew Bolton and Thom Browne, respectively the head of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute and the designer […]
New York Times Previews Flight of the WASP
Flight of the WASP just made the New York Times preview of 16 books to read in November, alongside such authors as Paul Auster, Barbra Streisand, Sigrid Nunez and Michael Cunningham. Flattered and grateful!
R.I.P. Ivan Bart
Ivan Bart was a young up-and-coming model agent when I first interviewed him for the book Model in 1994. He subsequently made my prediction that IMG, the agency where he worked, would come to dominate the field, come true. With a deep dedication to professionalism and careful kindness and attention to his charges, he rose […]
Supe’s On
Canada’s CBC News reported yesterday on the Supermodels documentary now streaming on Apple TV+. “The series has a lot to say, but it’s just as interesting for what it doesn’t say,” writes Jenna Benchetrit of the show starring and co-produced by its subjects Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford (shown with me circa 1994 in […]
Flight of the WASP is “delightfully provocative.” –BookPage
In a starred review in BookPage, the book recommendation magazine, calls Flight the WASP “absorbing…The book’s real delight lies in its brisk biographies of the people who illustrate the ascent and descent of WASP hegemony…Gross’ choices of biographical subjects are unexpected, even idiosyncratic….Well-researched and well-written.”
Flight of the WASP is a “Must Read”
The Next Big Idea Club, a subscription book club, has named Flight of the WASP a must read book for November. If you’re not a member, you can still pre-order a copy now.
Meisel: The Man Avedon called Xerox
Back in 1992, Madonna and photographer Steven Meisel created a photo book called Sex with lots of nekkid pictures of the entertainer and metal covers that so scratched my book shelves, I sold it. I probably should have held on to it as today, Meisel is having a moment, what with a book of his […]
The WASP Heir Behind Hair
Fifty-six years ago, the off-Broadway musical Hair was about to premiere as the first-ever production at impresario Joseph Papp’s Public Theater on Lafayette Street in downtown New York City. It was Indian summer 1967, when an heir to a great American paper products fortune, Michael Butler, saw an ad for the show featuring three native […]