I found one of my old bosses on Facebook a year ago and sent him a “hi”. It went into his “other” folder because I didn’t try to “friend” him (whatever that is). Anyway, he finally saw it and we have been exchanging reminiscences.

The exchange made me think of some books I worked on, one of which was “The Empire State Building” by Theodore James, but I couldn’t remember the author’s first name, so I Googled the book. I got a hit on Amazon and the opening paragraph describing the book sounded familiar and of course it was, because it was from the flap copy and I had written it.

The author wanted to have a big publishing party, and he had a lot of connections, so the party was held on top of the Empire State Building and had a 30s theme and surviving celebrities from that time had been invited. Jolie Gabor (the mother of Zsa Zsa, Eva, Magda) called to say she couldn’t make it because she was leaving for “Budapesht”. I went around imitating her accent all day.

Jack Dempsey’s daughter came and we were chatting and she said she wanted to do a book about her father, so I prevailed on her to submit to Harper & Row, my then company. I put her together with my editor (I was an editorial assistant) and she put her together with the editor specializing in sports and he got her a co-author and the book was done. The New York Post sent a camera crew.

I had invited my pal, Inese, the statuesque and stunning Chase Manhattan executive who had started out as a member of the New York City Ballet Company, but had not gone on with her ballet career. As soon as the camera crew saw her, they went ape and surrounded her, lights flashing. There was a story about the party the next day.

I also take credit for helping to launch the career of Susan Isaacs who wrote “Compromising Positions” that was made into a movie with Raul Julia and Susan Sarandon. Her editor gave me the manuscript for a second opinion because she wasn’t sure it was any good. I loved it and urged her to publish it.

When I moved to Times Books from Harper’s, the editor in chief knew I had worked with David Durk and wanted to meet him and get another book out of him. I introduced them. David told me he wanted to insist I be the editor, which would have moved me up. I told him please not to do that. The dynamics in that company were toxic. No way would they have let that happen and they would have thought I’d put him up to it. The Durk book didn’t happen either. David was way too difficult for them.

The little mouse here sits in the corner quietly and wishes she’d been pushier back when it might have counted.

xx, Teal