For the first few months I worked at Savvy, I lived in my parents’ guest room, in their apartment on West 93rd Street, not the run-down classic six they occupied during my high school and college years, but a co-op in a better maintained building.
I very much enjoyed this brief memoir. I am another Nancy Smith survivor and admire your handling of her comma frenzy. On top of everything else, she was just so odd.
And, of course, looking at Blount's own Substack one finds no commas anywhere near his name.
Were magazine personnel usually this childish and loud? I spent just a year at one of those places and it seemed like acting out was a way of life.
Oh do tell more! Where did you work for her? I haven't been able to track her down but almost fell over when I found she was teaching at NYU--she was perfectly awful to younger staff. I didn't know Roy has a Substack. I will check it out.
Let me see -- this was at Business Month, which used to be Dun's Business Review or some name like that. A stodgy and venerable publication that was bought and refashioned into a would-be hot book during the late '80s. I didn't work for her, thank God, but I was assistant copy editor and had to deal with her. She absolutely destroyed my boss, who kind of had it coming, being clever about small things and worse than useless about anything else. Really he was a jackass. But watch a lawnmower and a frog and you'll feel for the frog.
I'm happy to say that one person had Nancy's measure. This was Emily, our assistant production editor. She was a very large and tough working-class woman and would call Nancy blondie, as in "I'll do it when I do it, **blondie.** (Extra asterisks for extra emphasis.) Apparently this was enough to make Nancy back down. I remember being astonished when I heard that, as if somebody had walked into a buzzsaw and the buzzsaw broke.
Nancy did have a junior staff member whom she liked, a fact checker named Pam. But Pam was put off by Nancy's exuberant brand of weirdness. She told us other juniors about Nancy taking a copy of Premiere that had Mel Gibson and his blue eyes on the cover and rubbing it against her chest while rolling her own eyes up to the heavens; this was to express her enthusiasm for him.
Business Month was a flop and a new editor came in just before it folded. He summoned the staff for a meeting where he told them what he thought of the book. I was gone by then, but I heard third-hand that he called our "Periscope" section "unreadable, pretentious crap." This section was Nancy's special preserve. My informant said she appeared to be trying to swallow her mouth while her eyeballs forced their way out of her head.
Got to say I'm saddened to hear Robert Sam Anson worked so closely with her. I'd rather have no reason to think anything good about her at all. But she did go on to be exec editor at Self and then editor-in-chief at Working Woman, so I guess she had something on the ball -- spit, maybe.
Hahahahaha! It sounds like you and I could have quite a conversation. I worked very briefly for Nancy at Self (a silly job that paid obscenely well), and I can remember vividly how cutting she could be. When I once admired a gorgeous red coat she was wearing (she was always a smart dresser) and asked where she got it. she snapped, "I got it at the gettin' place."
I think Robert Sam Anson may have been a beau for a while, as was at least one other "hot" writer in her orbit. One of my favorite Smithisms was her remark: "I don't really like men, but I sure do like to fuck 'em."
And what became of your career? As you've probably gleaned, I segued from art journalism to directing an art gallery and am happy to be out of publishing entirely. Cheers
You worked with Nancy at Savvy and then at Self? Good lord, got to say that’s brave.
I kind of like the “getting place” remark, pointlessly dismissive as it was. My always brief exchanges with her involved no clever remarks on either side. Her thoughts on men make me grateful that Business Month wasn’t majority female, because God knows what she would have come out with. My fellow copy editor overheard her say something that was poignant and human enough. This was in the ladies room and Nancy was addressing a sidekick. Nancy (into the mirror): “I wish it was like before. When a boy would look at me and say ‘Ooh.’”
To my taste, at age 26, she seemed like a classic case of someone who might have been good-looking 20 years before but had gone in for too much tanning and alcohol, not to mention food. Luckily I myself was overweight at the time, since she strikes me as the sort who’d try some reverse-play ogling and “sexy” banter because of bullshit visited on her in the old days. One time I was dressed up a bit and she did give me a pronounced long look, but I think it was just to get on record (for herself) that she could do this sort of thing.
As for my career, I never had one. I wound up at Business Month by answering an ad in the Times, then answered another ad for my next job, then said the hell with it and went off for foreign travels.
I forgot that she was quite a drinker. We never had a solid friendship, but I concede she taught me quite a bit about editing. There are many others, though, that she scared the snot out of. Not a kind woman. I wonder where she is now.....
She scared the snot out of me and taught me nothing, not that she ever thought of teaching me.
Maybe if I'd seen the pre-edited copy, I might have picked up something useful from the before and after. As it was, it seemed like her goal was to make everything sound like standard, over-perky magazine prose. My impression was that she tried to get as many dashes as she could into any given piece of copy.
As to my life choices, at least they didn't include any more time at magazines. Business Month was a miserable place, though maybe staff at an actual hot book, not a wannabe, would spend less time reassuring themselves as to their personal magnificence. I remember our photo editor coming back from sort of errand at Spy and reporting with wonder that everyone there just seemed to keep their heads down and work.
I love your writing about your life especially the NYC office experiences, so highly entertaining. Maybe because being there at age 20 -21 it was all such a 'new world, coming from the bayou country, Gulf coast, Florida. ( with few office skills ). Hope you are feeling better and will keep writing.
Yes, we may have spent more than one late night on this one. Cunningham has steadfastly denied an affair, but the two married after she left Bendix and had a couple of kids. He was about to divorce her in 2017 when he died from respiratory failure at the age of 79. And therein must lie quite another tale....
I love this one! You really catch the rhythm of the office (s)--first down home and lazy, then management by hysteria. That is a GREAT line! And the peppers sound delightful too....
I really like your writing. Juicy and clear. Love the NYC reminiscences; reminds of me going to Shakespeare & Co on Broadway/69 and that bookstore on B-way and I think 81? God: the ole days of editing and revision. It seems like editing has gone by the wayside, at least when it comes to hot-button news articles.
“But that did not happen. Love may fly out the window when poverty enters the door, but we were too much a part of each other’s emotional furniture to dismantle the floor plan.”
Thanks, Michael. I barely remember Shakespeare & Company. My favorite haunts were the Strand, Brentano's and Doubleday on Fifth, and Three Lives in the Village. Also Argosy in the East 60s. Now even a Barnes & Noble can evoke serious nostalgia.
I very much enjoyed this brief memoir. I am another Nancy Smith survivor and admire your handling of her comma frenzy. On top of everything else, she was just so odd.
And, of course, looking at Blount's own Substack one finds no commas anywhere near his name.
Were magazine personnel usually this childish and loud? I spent just a year at one of those places and it seemed like acting out was a way of life.
Oh do tell more! Where did you work for her? I haven't been able to track her down but almost fell over when I found she was teaching at NYU--she was perfectly awful to younger staff. I didn't know Roy has a Substack. I will check it out.
Let me see -- this was at Business Month, which used to be Dun's Business Review or some name like that. A stodgy and venerable publication that was bought and refashioned into a would-be hot book during the late '80s. I didn't work for her, thank God, but I was assistant copy editor and had to deal with her. She absolutely destroyed my boss, who kind of had it coming, being clever about small things and worse than useless about anything else. Really he was a jackass. But watch a lawnmower and a frog and you'll feel for the frog.
I'm happy to say that one person had Nancy's measure. This was Emily, our assistant production editor. She was a very large and tough working-class woman and would call Nancy blondie, as in "I'll do it when I do it, **blondie.** (Extra asterisks for extra emphasis.) Apparently this was enough to make Nancy back down. I remember being astonished when I heard that, as if somebody had walked into a buzzsaw and the buzzsaw broke.
Nancy did have a junior staff member whom she liked, a fact checker named Pam. But Pam was put off by Nancy's exuberant brand of weirdness. She told us other juniors about Nancy taking a copy of Premiere that had Mel Gibson and his blue eyes on the cover and rubbing it against her chest while rolling her own eyes up to the heavens; this was to express her enthusiasm for him.
Business Month was a flop and a new editor came in just before it folded. He summoned the staff for a meeting where he told them what he thought of the book. I was gone by then, but I heard third-hand that he called our "Periscope" section "unreadable, pretentious crap." This section was Nancy's special preserve. My informant said she appeared to be trying to swallow her mouth while her eyeballs forced their way out of her head.
Got to say I'm saddened to hear Robert Sam Anson worked so closely with her. I'd rather have no reason to think anything good about her at all. But she did go on to be exec editor at Self and then editor-in-chief at Working Woman, so I guess she had something on the ball -- spit, maybe.
Hahahahaha! It sounds like you and I could have quite a conversation. I worked very briefly for Nancy at Self (a silly job that paid obscenely well), and I can remember vividly how cutting she could be. When I once admired a gorgeous red coat she was wearing (she was always a smart dresser) and asked where she got it. she snapped, "I got it at the gettin' place."
I think Robert Sam Anson may have been a beau for a while, as was at least one other "hot" writer in her orbit. One of my favorite Smithisms was her remark: "I don't really like men, but I sure do like to fuck 'em."
And what became of your career? As you've probably gleaned, I segued from art journalism to directing an art gallery and am happy to be out of publishing entirely. Cheers
You worked with Nancy at Savvy and then at Self? Good lord, got to say that’s brave.
I kind of like the “getting place” remark, pointlessly dismissive as it was. My always brief exchanges with her involved no clever remarks on either side. Her thoughts on men make me grateful that Business Month wasn’t majority female, because God knows what she would have come out with. My fellow copy editor overheard her say something that was poignant and human enough. This was in the ladies room and Nancy was addressing a sidekick. Nancy (into the mirror): “I wish it was like before. When a boy would look at me and say ‘Ooh.’”
To my taste, at age 26, she seemed like a classic case of someone who might have been good-looking 20 years before but had gone in for too much tanning and alcohol, not to mention food. Luckily I myself was overweight at the time, since she strikes me as the sort who’d try some reverse-play ogling and “sexy” banter because of bullshit visited on her in the old days. One time I was dressed up a bit and she did give me a pronounced long look, but I think it was just to get on record (for herself) that she could do this sort of thing.
As for my career, I never had one. I wound up at Business Month by answering an ad in the Times, then answered another ad for my next job, then said the hell with it and went off for foreign travels.
I forgot that she was quite a drinker. We never had a solid friendship, but I concede she taught me quite a bit about editing. There are many others, though, that she scared the snot out of. Not a kind woman. I wonder where she is now.....
It sounds like you made wise life choices.
She scared the snot out of me and taught me nothing, not that she ever thought of teaching me.
Maybe if I'd seen the pre-edited copy, I might have picked up something useful from the before and after. As it was, it seemed like her goal was to make everything sound like standard, over-perky magazine prose. My impression was that she tried to get as many dashes as she could into any given piece of copy.
As to my life choices, at least they didn't include any more time at magazines. Business Month was a miserable place, though maybe staff at an actual hot book, not a wannabe, would spend less time reassuring themselves as to their personal magnificence. I remember our photo editor coming back from sort of errand at Spy and reporting with wonder that everyone there just seemed to keep their heads down and work.
Ah yes Three Lives!
Love love love (no commas) your response to Nancy! ❤️❤️❤️
One of my favorite vignettes yet! Thank you for all of your efforts in retelling past excerpts of your life.
Such a rich article.
As a native New Yorker I kept nodding my head
About N.Y.
Offices probably never change I guess.
I am glad you are getting better.
Irene
Great episode, Anne. Feel better and keep them coming,
I love your writing about your life especially the NYC office experiences, so highly entertaining. Maybe because being there at age 20 -21 it was all such a 'new world, coming from the bayou country, Gulf coast, Florida. ( with few office skills ). Hope you are feeling better and will keep writing.
So interesting!
Didn’t we all pull an all nighter for that piece about Bill Agee and Mary Cunningham.? I remember a bit of a crisis going on going on about that..
And I wonder what happened to those two? Did they marry?
Yes, we may have spent more than one late night on this one. Cunningham has steadfastly denied an affair, but the two married after she left Bendix and had a couple of kids. He was about to divorce her in 2017 when he died from respiratory failure at the age of 79. And therein must lie quite another tale....
I love this one! You really catch the rhythm of the office (s)--first down home and lazy, then management by hysteria. That is a GREAT line! And the peppers sound delightful too....
Yes, do give the peppers a try. xxA
I really like your writing. Juicy and clear. Love the NYC reminiscences; reminds of me going to Shakespeare & Co on Broadway/69 and that bookstore on B-way and I think 81? God: the ole days of editing and revision. It seems like editing has gone by the wayside, at least when it comes to hot-button news articles.
“But that did not happen. Love may fly out the window when poverty enters the door, but we were too much a part of each other’s emotional furniture to dismantle the floor plan.”
Love that 👌
Thanks, Michael. I barely remember Shakespeare & Company. My favorite haunts were the Strand, Brentano's and Doubleday on Fifth, and Three Lives in the Village. Also Argosy in the East 60s. Now even a Barnes & Noble can evoke serious nostalgia.
Yes! Three Lives!