Did they stay or did they go? You might never know if your fave authors were feted at Jeff Bezos’ annual super-secret Campfire this past weekend. Word is the elite attendees are cautioned that what plays at Campfire, stays at Campfire.
In 2011, Bezos “flew in Margaret Atwood, Michael Chabon, Alice Walker, Neil Gaiman, and Khaled Hosseini, among others, to a think tanky event he called ‘Amazon Campfire,’” Dennis Johnson noted in his Melville House blog. Since then, radio silence.
The Renaissance Weekend-like event of fabulous meals, fascinating formal talks led by folks like Neil Armstrong, horseback riding and skeet shooting, and sweet swag (down vests, fleeces) continued for the most part under the radar, until The New York Times reported Sunday on the fifth autumn weekend soiree under the headline, “A Writerly Chill at Bezos’ Fire.”
Seems a bit of the bonhomie has been siphoned off the warm, cozy atmosphere by the it’s-not-personal-it’s-business Amazon/Hachette dispute. The Times’ David Streitfeld wrote: “Some repeat Campfire attendees who have supported Hachette in the dispute say they were not invited this year…The event has become as divisive as the fight.”
James Patterson, a Hachette author who attended last year and has been outspoken, saying Amazon needed to be stopped “by law if necessary, immediately,” was not invited back. He said he wouldn’t have gone had he been invited, while acknowledging to the Times that the event had been “terrific.”
The Santa Fe New Mexican headline? “Local authors fume as Bezos holds secret Santa Fe retreat.”
At the Campfire site, Bishop’s Lodge Ranch Resort and Spa north of Santa Fe, guards at the front gate dissuade the curious. At the front desk, says the Times, the operator will not ring the room of a guest or take a message.
And a Santa Fe independent bookstore, “Collected Works, has a sign in the window banning Amazon’s Fire Phone, which shoppers can use to order books by scanning their covers, automatically placing an order and bypassing brick-and-mortar stores,” reports the Santa Fe New Mexican.
Outside the Campfire, the chill seems mutual.