James Frey | The New York Observer

Burnham, Baby, Burnham: Harper Honcho Falls at Literary Bee

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:58:02 -0400

Village Voice columnist Michael Musto, Harper publisher Jonathan Burnham, artist Maira Kalman, author James Frey, Vogue editor Sally Singer and others gathered at Diane von Furstenberg’s studio beneath the High Line on Monday, Oct. 26, for a spelling bee to support the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses and independent publishing.

“I’m so damn, D-A-M-N, nervous,” Ms. Kalman told the judge, Jesse Sheidlower, the soft-spoken editor at large for the Oxford English Dictionary.

James Frey Brings His Daughter for a Playdate at Cynthia Rowley's Show

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 10:13:51 -0400

At Cynthia Rowley's show on Sept. 11 at a loft in Chelsea, three little girls ran around the runway, tugging at their parents' arms and climbing on and off the chairs in the front row.

There was 4-year-old Maren Frey, the platinum blond, adorable little daughter of Bright Shiny Morning author James Frey and wife, Maya. Tiny Maren was outfitted in a white dress, silver sandals, and a string of pearls for...

James Frey: 'There Isn't a Great Deal of Difference Between Fact and Fiction'

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 17:48:22 -0400

James Frey's Bright Shiny Morning comes out in the U.K. this week, and the press has started to come in. The most interesting thing so far is a dramatic little feature from the Times called "The US Antihero" by Alan Franks. Quotes from Frey are peppered throughout the piece, including this doozy:

I've been in conflict with everything for my whole life. That's the rule, not the exception. Conflict with...

Frey Number 9 on Times Bestseller List; First Week Sales at Around 14,000

Wed, 21 May 2008 17:38:35 -0400

The numbers are in: James Frey's Bright Shiny Morning, published by the flagship imprint of HarperCollins on May 13, sold 14,343 copies in its first week, putting it at No. 9 on the New York Times best-seller list. (It should be noted BookScan only tracks 70 percent of total sales.)

We hear HarperCollins is pleased.
...

James Frey: Love Thy Enemy

Mon, 19 May 2008 18:51:07 -0400

Liar. Whiner. Very bad writer. James Frey has been called a lot of things, but no one can call the guy impolite.

At an appearance to promote his new book, Bright Shiny Morning, in San Francisco on Friday, Mr. Frey was met by the forces of Down with Frey, an organization whose aims are pretty self-explanatory. But, here's the thing: Mr. Frey seemed to like them. On his Amazon promotional blog, Omnivoracious,...

Burnham Banked on Frey, Expands Office, Revives Rep

Tue, 13 May 2008 15:20:20 -0400

Some time before it became crystal clear that, despite all laws of nature, James Frey’s Bright Shiny Morning would be an unqualified hit, there was a moment when agents and editors wondered if the man who’d agreed to publish it might have reason to worry for his job. Back in September, Harper publisher Jonathan Burnham had stunned colleagues and rivals by forking over a seven-figure advance for the privilege of putting out Mr. Frey’s...

Janet Maslin Channels James Frey In Rave Review Of Bright Shiny Morning

Mon, 12 May 2008 10:59:37 -0400

Janet Maslin loved Bright Shiny Morning. The teaser text on the New York Times books portal is "James Frey stepped up to the plate and hit one out of the park with his new book." Ms. Maslin's review, published today, is not only an unequivocal rave, but a tribute to Mr. Frey's choppy trademark style: "His publisher called it a dazzling tour de force. (Look, somebody had to, if only to create a comeback...

Lineup for May 7, 2008

Wed, 07 May 2008 07:59:05 -0400

Leon Neyfakh wonders who'll replace departing Random House CEO Peter Olson. "Regardless of whom Bertelsmann CEO Hartmut Ostrowski and his 15-person supervisory board appoint to replace Mr. Olson, it is all but certain that Random House will undergo some radical changes." Plus: James Frey.

Doree Shafrir has the tale of the tape on several heated media feuds, including Jared Paul Stern v. Ron Burkle, Buzz Bissinger v. Will Leitch (thankfully resolved), and Leon...

Frey: No Lies!

Tue, 06 May 2008 15:27:54 -0400

Editors at MSNBC.com removed and retracted a story about James Frey last Thursday afternoon after receiving some angry phone calls from members of Mr. Frey’s publicity team. In the story “Frey Still Having Trouble Keeping Facts Straight,” which ran in the Scoop gossip column, reporter Courtney Hazlett suggested that Mr. Frey, the disgraced memoirist whose debut novel will be published by HarperCollins next Tuesday, had been caught in a fresh tangle of lies. ...

Morning Memo: All Our 'Heroes' Went to Anna's Little Party Last Night ...

Tue, 06 May 2008 08:47:18 -0400

Dina Lohan will be honored as a "Top Mom"--no, really!--on Long Island by an organization called Mingling Moms, alongside Rae Stern (Howard Stern's mom), Betty Seinfeld (Jerry's mom), and Shelley Stevens Herschlag (Natalie Portman's mom). Check back here tomorrow for lots more ... [P6]

The Met's Costume Institute Gala last night was attended by colorful superheroes, extraterrestrial royalty, and oh yeah, some glitzy New Yorkers too. [The Cut]

Alice+olivia designer Stacey Bendet is reportedly pregers...

Lineup for April 30, 2008

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 07:49:07 -0400

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...

James Frey's PR Squad Is Batting 1.000

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:46:40 -0400

James Frey’s novel Bright Shiny Morning is coming out in two weeks, which means the publicity department at HarperCollins is in the thick of what has to be an unusually challenging public-relations campaign.

With director of publicity Tina Andreadis in charge, the team has done a knockout job so far. The biggest coup is the softball profile of Mr. Frey that will appear in this month’s Vanity Fair, which paints Mr....

Famed Faker Frey Buys Soho Condo for $985K (For Reals)

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 18:38:32 -0400

According to city records, fabulist James Frey has a fabulous new unit to add to his three-bedroom apartment at 505 Greenwich Street. This month, Mr. Frey and wife Maya closed on a $985,000 one-bedroom apartment, next door to the three-bedroom condo.

They bought that first place for $2.55 million in May 2005, half a year before his two best-selling addiction memoirs were exposed as massively fictitious. “I don’t think it is a...

Advance Galley for James Frey's New Novel Bright Shiny Morning Spotted on Q Train!

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 19:22:48 -0400

Coming off the Q train at Union Square this morning, The Media Mob spotted a woman on the stairs carrying a paperback copy of James Frey's forthcoming novel Bright Shiny Morning. The book-- Mr. Frey's first unequivocally fictional work and his first attempt to restore his reputation since his memoirs were revealed in late 2005 to be largely embellished-- won't be out until May.

The manuscript has been under lock and key since...

1,700 Million Little Pieces Readers To Be Reimbursed

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 09:24:26 -0500

The Observer's Leon Neyfakyh told us in September:

If A Million Little Pieces taught us anything, it’s that readers love a good tale of redemption, and now that Mr. [James] Frey is back with a new novel, the people who have agreed to help him sell it are going all out to convince the world that New York has forgiven Mr. Frey his sins....

Reconstructing Frey

Tue, 18 Sep 2007 20:38:19 -0400

At 5:15 on the afternoon of Wednesday, August 29, James Frey informed his fans, in strikingly confident terms, that he had finished his first novel. “Done,” he wrote on his blog. “To be released in 2008.”

Two weeks later, The Wall Street Journal broke the news that Jonathan Burnham of HarperCollins had acquired the book after Mr. Frey’s highly regarded new agent, Eric Simonoff of Janklow & Nesbit—who also represents Jhumpa Lahiri and...

My Book Deal Ruined My Life

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 14:40:54 -0400

For those who think they have a book inside them just waiting to be written—and, really, isn’t that pretty much everyone?—landing a book contract would be like winning the lottery. Dreams would come true; doors would open. Anything could happen.

“You hear about these big contracts coming in, and it whets your appetite,” said Leah McLaren, a columnist for Canada’s Globe and Mail, who landed a book contract with HarperCollins Canada in...

Is James Frey Candyman?

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 03:42:17 -0500

Be careful how many times you say "James Frey" in public. He could appear right behind you. On election night, Mr. Frey was out at Employees Only—the pretty would-be Prohibition-evocative hot-spot on Hudson by Christopher. As he walked by the bar, he saw some guys he recognized with some other guys he didn't recognize. He slowed. Maybe he would say hello. But then he over-heard that the topic of discussion was, oddly enough, James...

The Transom

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 19:00:00 -0500

Radical Chiclets “It’s the time to do something right here and right now,” said the artist Robert Wilson. He was outside the Guggenheim sharing a cigarette with his friend, Winona Ryder, and talking about cracking the art scene wide open, again. “His name should become an adjective, you know, like: That’s really Wilson,” said Ms. Ryder. Everyone was at the museum last week to help celebrate Robert Wilson’s 65th birthday, as well as the...

The Transom

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 19:00:00 -0500

The Transom

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 19:00:00 -0500

Mr. & Mrs. Frey at Fashion Week

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 02:34:53 -0400

Renegade scribe James Frey and his wife, Maya, made their runway début in the front row at Cynthia Rowley's défilé de mode at Gotham Hall. "We're just friends with Bill and Cynthia and we've come to support her," Mr. Frey said, referring to the designer and her author-husband, Bill Powers. "My wife is into fashion," he said. He was a little flustered: "So, I'm what my wife's into." Across the runway sat Martha Stewart. "I'm...

The Packager and the Plagiarist, Continued

Wed, 26 Apr 2006 16:07:30 -0400

I thought Kaavya Visnawathan was tough on the Today Show this morning. Katie Couric played the strict mother; she wanted her to break down like a good 19-year-old and admit she had copied straight from Megan McCafferty. When Visnawathan didn't crack and said the dog ate my homework—yes she had read Megan's books many times over, but any resemblances are strictly coincidental—Couric said, "Why did you come on the show?" Visnawathan insisted it was...

Letters

Sun, 12 Feb 2006 19:00:00 -0500

Giuliani Got Mail To the Editor: In Jason Horowitz’s Feb. 6 story, “Put Up Your Fuchs: Professor Is Mayor’s Left Hemisphere,” Ms. Fuchs asserts: “We came into City Hall and there was no e-mail.” If that were true, I can’t imagine what all that stuff in my computer’s inbox was. I’m shocked, just shocked, that you would allow her to say this and let it go unchallenged. This letter to the editor is being...

Fact, Fiction and the Theater: Truth Is, We Prefer Lies

Sun, 05 Feb 2006 19:00:00 -0500

As I was saying, I don’t go to Oprah Winfrey for the truth. I go to the theater instead. That fragile, fantastic thing we call the theater has always seemed to me to be the last place on earth where our stories can be truthfully told. There, Artaud’s “strange sun,” a light of abnormal intensity, illuminates the whole of life, including its high comedy and convulsive cruelty and lies.

Compared to the eternal...

Freyed Tomato

Sun, 05 Feb 2006 19:00:00 -0500

On Thursday, Jan. 26, Nan A. Talese, the publisher of A Million Little Pieces, appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s now-infamous James Frey take-down show. But Ms. Talese truly had no idea what she was in for. “I was asked to go onto a program that was going to have James on it, and then I was going to be joined by Frank Rich and Richard Cohen to talk about ‘Truth in America.’ That...

Why Oprah Spurned Me: I Am the Un-Frey

Sun, 05 Feb 2006 19:00:00 -0500

Forgive me, Miss O., for I have sinned. Inspired by James Frey’s contrite appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show last week, I’ve decided to come clean. The fact that Mr. Frey’s “autobiography” is chewing up the best-seller lists and mine only clawed its way onto the New York Post list for one measly week isn’t going to stop me from grabbing that confessional spotlight. For I, too, have lied. Naughty, fibbing moi! And just...

Fact, Fiction and the Theater: Truth Is, We Prefer Lies

Sun, 05 Feb 2006 19:00:00 -0500

Hilary Swank: Marriage Expert

Fri, 03 Feb 2006 13:30:29 -0500

Photo: Nicole Brydson. It's so great to get a celebrity endorsement on the back of your book! When Richard Kirshenbaum and Daniel Rosenberg's Closing the Deal: Two Married Guys Reveal the Dirty Truth to Getting Your Man to Commit hits the stores in paperback on February 7th, a glowing endorsement from Hilary Swank will adorn the back cover. Better or worse than being blurbed by James...

Toning Up, Toning Down: Tracking a Publishing Term of Art

Mon, 30 Jan 2006 03:09:47 -0500

"I've acknowledged that there were embellishments in the book, that I've changed things, that in certain cases things were toned up, in certain cases things were toned down..." - James Frey on Larry King Live, January 11, 2006. "I suppose I could have done that book... It would have been shocking and I could have gotten all kinds of attention, and I could have toned things up and toned things down." - Martha Sherrill, quoted...

Letters

Sun, 29 Jan 2006 19:00:00 -0500

[Expert TK] Has Arrived

To the Editor: Bless Tom Scocca for the sanity and clarity of his James Frey piece [“The Awful Untruth,” Jan. 23], and for its painstaking walk through the insanity and absurdity being pandered in Mr. Frey’s defense. The spinning soft-shoe pirouettes have been dizzying enough, but the fact that even the outraged attacks seemed to miss the point just added to the sense of vertigo in this whole...

Remember Sept. 11, 2001? Here's the Romantic Version

Sun, 29 Jan 2006 19:00:00 -0500

It’s surely not Jay McInerney’s fault that the author of the hilariously unconvincing Amazon review of his new novel is none other than James Frey, whose name is now synonymous with unreliable. Mr. Frey claims to believe that The Good Life is Mr. McInerney’s best book since Bright Lights, Big City (1984), and also that Mr. McInerney is “starting to show us” what kind of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald might have been had he...

Letters

Sun, 29 Jan 2006 19:00:00 -0500

[Expert TK] Has Arrived To the Editor: Bless Tom Scocca for the sanity and clarity of his James Frey piece [“The Awful Untruth,” Jan. 23], and for its painstaking walk through the insanity and absurdity being pandered in Mr. Frey’s defense. The spinning soft-shoe pirouettes have been dizzying enough, but the fact that even the outraged attacks seemed to miss the point just added to the sense of vertigo in this whole mess. Trot...

Remember Sept. 11, 2001? Here’s the Romantic Version

Sun, 29 Jan 2006 19:00:00 -0500

It’s surely not Jay McInerney’s fault that the author of the hilariously unconvincing Amazon review of his new novel is none other than James Frey, whose name is now synonymous with unreliable. Mr. Frey claims to believe that The Good Life is Mr. McInerney’s best book since Bright Lights, Big City (1984), and also that Mr. McInerney is “starting to show us” what kind of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald might have been had he...

Oprah on Frey: "I Was Wrong"

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 05:09:00 -0500

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...

Oprah to Host Frey, Talese, Rich

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 11:49:00 -0500

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. --Sheelah...

The Awful Untruth

Sun, 22 Jan 2006 19:00:00 -0500

“That this man is standing in front of me and everyone else in this room is lying to us is heresy. The truth is all that matters. This is fucking heresy.”—James Frey, A Million Little Pieces, page 178

“If you’re an addict whose life has been moved by this story, and you feel that what James went through was able to—to help you hold on a little bit longer, and you connected to that—that is...

The Awful Untruth

Sun, 22 Jan 2006 19:00:00 -0500

On Monday, Jan. 16, Nan Talese was on vacation in Bermuda with her husband, the nonfiction writer Gay Talese. It was Ms. Talese’s imprint at Doubleday that published James Frey’s memoir A Million Little Pieces in hardcover, and she had something to add to the still-evolving controversy. “When the manuscript of A Million Little Pieces was received by us at Doubleday, it was received as nonfiction, as a memoir,” said Ms. Talese by phone....

The Awful Untruth

Sun, 22 Jan 2006 19:00:00 -0500

“That this man is standing in front of me and everyone else in this room is lying to us is heresy. The truth is all that matters. This is fucking heresy.”—James Frey, A Million Little Pieces, page 178 “If you’re an addict whose life has been moved by this story, and you feel that what James went through was able to—to help you hold on a little bit longer, and you connected to that—that...

Meet the New Staggering Genius

Sun, 22 Jan 2006 19:00:00 -0500

At 33, James Frey has a humble ambition: He wants to be the greatest literary writer of his generation. And like the guy in the film Memento, he’s got a cryptic note tattooed on his left arm should he forget: “F.T.B.S.I.T.T.T.D.” “It means ‘FUCK THE BULLSHIT IT’S TIME TO THROW DOWN,’” explained Mr. Frey, a fledgling filmmaker turned author whose first book, A Million Little Pieces, will be published in April by Nan...

In Frey Fabrication, Publishers Only Care If Mt. Oprah Blows

Sun, 15 Jan 2006 19:00:00 -0500

By the jaded standards of the publishing trade, it shouldn’t have been disturbing to learn that author James Frey may have fudged the truth in his best-selling addiction memoir, A Million Little Pieces.

“For someone to style a book as a memoir and take liberties with strict factual accuracy of the account is not unusual,” said Jonathan Kirsch, an author and publishing attorney. “That’s the world we live in, and publishers tolerate it. They might...

In Frey Fabrication, Publishers Only Care If Mt. Oprah Blows

Sun, 15 Jan 2006 19:00:00 -0500

By the jaded standards of the publishing trade, it shouldn’t have been disturbing to learn that author James Frey may have fudged the truth in his best-selling addiction memoir, A Million Little Pieces. “For someone to style a book as a memoir and take liberties with strict factual accuracy of the account is not unusual,” said Jonathan Kirsch, an author and publishing attorney. “That’s the world we live in, and publishers tolerate it. They...

What to Do Post-Rehab? Write a Memoir, Of Course

Sun, 12 Jun 2005 20:00:00 -0400

My Friend Leonard, by James Frey. Riverhead Books, 357 pages, $24.95. James Frey wants you to know he's a real man. A manly man. Perhaps even a manimal. Two years ago, when A Million Little Pieces, the first installation of his unrelenting odyssey into sobriety, was thrust upon the world, James was already proving what a man he was. He kicked his 10-year drug and alcohol addiction just like that, because that's what...

James Frey Buys in Soho for Two Million Little Dollars! Plus, the Weinstein's Growing Empire; Trekkie Sells for $3.5 M.

Sun, 29 May 2005 20:00:00 -0400

Celebrated young author James Frey must be banking on the success of his soon-to-be-released second book. The once-drug-addled writer purchased a $2.55 million Soho condo in early May, according to city deed-transfer records. The 2,000-square-foot condo originally listed at $2.495 million.

"It's a beautiful apartment," said broker Daren Herzberg of the Corcoran Group, who represented the sellers along with colleague Brian Babst. "It's in a prime West Soho location." Mr. Frey and his wife, Maya,...

Power Punk: Sean McDonald

Sun, 14 Dec 2003 19:00:00 -0500

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

Big, quiet, slightly rough-hewn Sean McDonald, the senior editor and online creative director of Riverhead Books, has become the Zen master of the publishing world. He inspires utter confidence among his peers, exuding a kind of quintessential American self-assurance, understated and direct, large-scale but devoid of grandiosity. Mr. McDonald's first job out of Yale was at Arcade,...

Meet the New Staggering Genius

Sun, 02 Feb 2003 19:00:00 -0500

At 33, James Frey has a humble ambition: He wants to be the greatest literary writer of his generation. And like the guy in the film Memento , he's got a cryptic note tattooed on his left arm should he forget: "F.T.B.S.I.T.T.T.D."

"It means 'FUCK THE BULLSHIT IT'S TIME TO THROW DOWN,'" explained Mr. Frey, a fledgling filmmaker turned author whose first book, A Million Little Pieces , will be published in April by...

Meet the New Staggering Genius

Sun, 02 Feb 2003 19:00:00 -0500

"It means 'FUCK THE BULLSHIT IT'S TIME TO THROW DOWN,'" explained Mr. Frey, a fledgling filmmaker turned author whose first book, A Million Little Pieces , will be published in April by...

Meet the New Staggering Genius

Sun, 02 Feb 2003 19:00:00 -0500

"It means 'FUCK THE BULLSHIT IT'S TIME TO THROW DOWN,'" explained Mr. Frey, a fledgling filmmaker turned author whose first book, A Million Little Pieces , will be published in April by...