When Page Six ran a gossipy item about Ralph Ellison‘s real feelings towards Norman Mailer a few weeks ago, I vaguely paid attention, partly because Mailer’s on everybody’s radar lately what with that Hitler novel, and partly because I’d just gotten my own galley of the Knopf-published biography of Ellison by Arnold Rampersad that the Post cited for the story. But I didn’t think much about it beyond that until yesterday, when p6 featured not only a juicy tidbit from Martin Duberman‘s bio of Lincoln Kirstein, coming from Knopf in April, but also an announcement of Marisa Acocella Marchetto‘s new book deal (a week after Publishers Marketplace, but still). And then my memory got a tickle, so I double-checked, and sure enough, the same week as the Ellison item, they also ran beyond-the-grave gossip about Marlene Dietrich from the journals of Leo Lerman, another April title for Knopf, just two weeks after serving up the skinny on Leni Riefenstahl’s hatred for Goebbels from Steven Bach‘s March biography.
So kudos are due somebody at 1745 Broadway for the free-flowing pipeline…now let’s see if the lucky publicist(s) can plant the story about the time Robert Rauschenberg convinced Carolyn Brown to take one of his paintings home by turning it on its side after she complained that a rectangle in the center looked too much like a door! (If you’re reading this, Sixers, it’s on page 86 of Chance and Circumstance, Brown’s hefty memoir of her career in Merce Cunningham’s dance troupe. We can also provide citations for Cunningham’s abrasively poor management skills upon request, but you’ll owe us a drink.)