Nan Talese

The time bomb that was Random House for the past five months has finally exploded, as new C.E.O. Markus Dohle deployed a jaw-dropping memo this morning detailing a reorganization of the adult trade program that will see Bantam publisher Irwyn Applebaum and Doubleday publisher Steve Rubin step down and their imprints spread around to the company's other divisions.

Much, much more on this soon, but for now, the basics:

—Doubleday's flagship imprint and its Nan A. Talese unit will fall under the command of Sonny Mehta at Knopf.

—Crown will incorporate Broadway, Doubleday Business, Doubleday Religion, and WaterBrook Multnomah, with Crown publisher Jenny Frost presiding over all of them.  read more »

If you remember this year's White House Correspondent's Dinner, you weren't there. Felix Gillette, John Koblin, and Choire Sicha flood the zone in D.C..

Janet Silver is moving from Houghton Mifflin to Nan Talese's imprint at Doubleday. Leon Neyfakh checks in with with Ms. Talese who says, "I called Janet and she sent us a list of the authors she had worked with and the ones who’d said they wanted to come with her, if not immediately then eventually." That list may include Philip Roth and Jonathan Safran Foer. Plus: Islam observers on Wieseltier's Amis review; James Frey's PR Dream Team; Spitzer's bio; Nabokov's unfinished novel.  read more »

On May 1, former Houghton Mifflin publisher Janet Silver starts her new job as an editor at large at Nan Talese’s boutique literary imprint at Doubleday.

Back in January, Ms. Silver and several other editors at Houghton Mifflin were made redundant as part of the company’s merger with Harcourt.

But Ms. Silver and Ms. Talese may have the better end of the stick: The author list Ms. Silver built at Houghton, which included Philip Roth and Jonathan Safran Foer, did not play a small role in Ms. Talese’s desire to recruit her.

“I called Janet and she sent us a list of the authors she had worked with and the ones who’d said they wanted to come with her, if not immediately then eventually,” Ms. Talese said. “We ran down the financials and ... we made an agreement with her that she would stay up there in Massachusetts. It was all done in a rather good fashion.”  read more »

At around 7:45 p.m. on Monday, April 28, writer Carl Bernstein was mingling at the cocktail hour before the PEN Literary Awards at the Museum of Natural History, Coca Cola in hand, looking very healthy. “I ride a bike and listen to a lot of music,” he said. “I mostly listen to classical but also rock.  read more »

Janet Silver, who lost her position as publisher of Houghton Mifflin's trade division last month when that company was merged with Harcourt, has landed firmly on her feet, joining Nan Talese's eponymous imprint at Doubleday as editor-at-large.

At Houghton, Ms. Silver edited books by Philip Roth, Cynthia Ozick, Jonathan Safran Foer, and a score of other well-known writers. Many in the publishing industry were dismayed when news of her ouster broke. 

In a statement from Doubleday issued this morning, Ms. Talese is quoted as saying, “Over the course of her distinguished career, Janet has nurtured an impressive array of talented writers, providing them the level of support and care their work so richly deserved... Her now joining our imprint is such a natural match, and I am thrilled to welcome her as a colleague.”  read more »

On Thursday, Jan. 26, Nan A.  read more »

On today's live Oprah Winfrey show, Ms. Winfrey apologized to her audience and to readers of her book club.

"I apologize, I was wrong," Ms. Winfrey said, about her support of author James Frey. The Smoking Gun released an investigation of disputed facts in Mr. Frey's memoir, A Million Little Pieces, earlier this month. She also said, "I regret my phone call to Larry King," referring to her live phone call to the talk show host, in which she blamed the publishing industry for not disclaiming the memoir. "The truth matters," Ms. Winfrey said, and: "My judgement was clouded."

Mr. Frey's publisher, Nan Talese, said on the show that she found the whole experience sad. "It's not sad for me," said Ms. Winfrey. "It is embarrassing."

After a number of disclosures, including his inability to recall whether he had actually experienced the infamous root canal without pain medication that he recounted in his memoir, Mr. Frey said that "there were no other major issues." No questions were asked about the title character of Mr. Frey's second memoir, My Friend Leonard.  read more »

--Choire Sicha

According to the Oprah Winfrey Show Web site, tomorrow's program will revisit the questions surrounding James Frey and A Million Little Pieces.

A source at Doubleday said that Frey, publisher Nan Talese and Frank Rich will be appearing on the show, which is being taped tomorrow morning for airing at 4 p.m.  read more »

--Sheelah Kolhatkar

At 33, James Frey has a humble ambition: He wants to be the greatest literary writer of his generati  read more »

Gay Talese was creating a scene. He said so, the professional watcher, watching himself.    read more »

Gay Talese was creating a scene. He said so, the professional watcher, watching himself.  read more »

It was lunch time at Nice Matin on Amsterdam Avenue-a little slice of Great Neck plopped down on the  read more »

Riverhead Books' big man from Laguna Beach edits James Frey, Wu-Tang Clan, takes up a lot of spaceBi  read more »

With his burnt-orange cowboy boots propped on his desk and a western shirt tucked into his Wranglers  read more »