Dear Friends:
In this edition of the Other Press newsletter, Anka Muhlstein writes about her new book, Balzac's Omelette, and shares a recipe from Balzac; and Richard Polsky writes about The Art Prophets and art profits.
Anka and Richard are both on tour this fall, as are Sarah Bakewell (How to Live), Bonnie Nadzam (Lamb), and Lawrence Douglas (The Vices). Tour details for all of our authors can be found by clicking on the links in the sidebar at the right.
And a special notice to our New York friends: mark your calendars for October 24, when Greenlight Bookstore will host Other Press Night, featuring Sarah, Bonnie, and Lawrence, as well as our publisher, Judith Gurewich, and the rest of our NY-based staff.
As always, a selection of our titles is available for request via Netgalley and Edelweiss. We hope to see you at one of our events this fall!
Very best,
Terrie Akers Paul Kozlowski
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At Balzac's Table
 by Anka Muhlstein
For months at a time, Balzac worked sixteen hours a day. He would go to bed at seven, get up at midnight, and work till early afternoon without a break.
During these periods, he hardly ate: a few pears perhaps (he had a passion for pears), a chicken wing, and of course very black coffee in huge quantities, which allowed his ideas to get marching like the battalions of Napoleon's army before a battle. He was convinced--and he repeated this over and over again--that abstemiousness was essential for the creative artist. In his rather bizarre medical thinking, he considered that the effort of digestion wore out the brain. (I should add that he also thought it essential not to go too long without a woman lest the same brain go soft.) But let's go back to food. Balzac the man did not eat, but Balzac the author was obsessed with food--a first in French literature. I wondered why the topic never came up before Balzac, and to find out the reason I started reading and rereading his novels and ended up with a book of my own.
I realized that restaurants hardly existed in Paris before Balzac's time, but by the time he was writing his masterpieces they numbered in the thousands. Suddenly everybody discussed food. What were the best places to meet for dinner became a question of the utmost interest, and food became a literary subject. All sorts of restaurant guides appeared. In my view, the best one of the era is The Human Comedy. Balzac was a regular at some forty restaurants, and he sends off his characters into the most refined establishments as well as into the most lowly ones. He lingers over the menu and never neglects the element of coziness or cost in rating them. The result is an ideal Michelin Guide of gastronomical delights or disasters in nineteenth-century
Paris.
From Art Prophets
to Art Profiteers
 By Richard Polsky
My new book, The Art Prophets, is the story of eleven visionary art dealers and tastemakers whose ideas and discoveries helped define the art world as we now know it. Each of these individuals got involved with art primarily because it thrilled them. Prosperity, while obviously welcomed, was of secondary importance; if it happened it happened. With the arrival of the Gagosian Gallery, and their winner-take-all strategy, financial success became the new raison d'etre. Now that Larry Gagosian has announced he will show
Damien Hirst's Spot paintings, simultaneously at all eleven of his international outposts, the colossus of art dealers has upped the bar again and invented a new category: the Art Profit.
The roots of the Gagosian's philosophy can be traced back to the great Leo Castelli. During the early sixties Castelli invented the concept of the satellite gallery. Due to growing demand for his top-selling artists--Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, and Frank Stella--he was under constant duress from galleries and collectors across the country to make the work available locally and share the wealth. Castelli's farsighted solution was to set up satellite dealerships around America. Basically, the best gallery in each respective city was offered the "Castelli Franchise." In real terms, that meant access to his most salable artists. The result was a steady stream of income for Castelli and the further dissemination of his artists in the "provinces," places like Los Angeles, Houston, and St. Louis.
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Authors on Tour
New this month from Other Press
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