Another Life_ A Memoir of Other People - Michael Korda [0]
ANOTHER LIFE
“[An] engaging memoir.”
—The New York Times
“This is a memoir about the publishing business and the people who swirl through it. For writers or serious readers or frivolous readers who just love books, this is a delicious find. [Korda] knows how to tell a wonderful story.”
—The Washington Post Book World
“A triumph … so diverting, so lively, and so well-intentioned (even in its wickedest characterizations) that it calls for a new classification: a Book of Fabulous Beasts. What makes his book not only amusing and instructive but appealing is that his close and canny observations are conveyed with a writer’s glee, never with sour resentment or envy.”
—New York Observer
“Interesting, readable, and truly informative … reading Another Life … is like taking a walk through a gallery of portraits of the eccentric and famous with a guide who got to see them at their best and worst and remembers with precision what those encounters were like.”
—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Gloriously funny, charming, and ultra-readable … A more candid, engaging and warmly knowledgeable survey of the past 40 years of publishing cannot be imagined. Nobody who loves the book business with Korda’s hopeless and enduring passion can fail to be delighted and touched by this endearing saga.”
—Publishers Weekly
“A wry, lively, informative, and wonderfully written chronicle that puts to the lie any idea that publishing is a stodgy business.”
—George Plimpton
“A page-turner … a good read … [Korda] has an impressive memory, a good eye for telling moments, and surely knows how to pen a story. His instinct for what keeps pages turning has kept him in business all these years and serves him well here. As Korda might put it, this book works.”
—The Seattle Times
“Full of delicious gossip … full of such vivid recollections, written with zest and intelligence … a good read.”
—Daily News (Los Angeles)
“Once—before the telephone, television, and Internet—the village elder gathered people round the fire and told mesmerizing stories. None told stories better than Michael Korda does in this enthralling memoir about publishing and squeezing the most out of life. Your jaw will drop listening to this village elder tell wise and comical tales about the great and nongreat, about a publishing industry convulsed by change, about his own vivid, and admirable, career.”
—Ken Auletta
“Charming and compulsively readable.”
—Detroit Free Press
“Korda describes the people in his life in vivid and delightful detail … a relaxing, enjoyable book loaded with funny and quirky stories.”
—The Denver Post
“A witty, pithy, and sometimes caustic look at some of the best-known names in the world of publishing and the movies.”
—Houston Chronicle
A Delta Book
Published by
Dell Publishing
a division of
Random House, Inc.
1540 Broadway
New York, New York 10036
Copyright © 2000 Success Research Corporation
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. For information address: Random House, New York, New York.
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eISBN: 978-0-307-80835-6
Reprinted by arrangement with Random House
v3.1
I always had the idea that when I was old I’d get frightfully clever. I’d get awfully learned, I’d get jolly sage. People would come to me for advice. But nobody ever comes to me for anything, and I don’t know a bloody thing.
— RALPH RICHARDSON
CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Epigraph
PART ONE
The Creative Juices
PART TWO
File Under Grief
PART THREE
Nice Guys Finish Last
PART