Farrar, Straus & Giroux Move Out of Dickensian Offices

They don't even have hot water in the ladies room, the New Yorker reveals. But everybody seems pretty cool with that: after all, it's the literature that's important (publishing Tom Wolfe, Denis Johnson, Alex Ross, et al), not the amenities. A longtime employee explains, "The money went into the books, not into painting the walls." (How expensive could it possibly be to paint the walls?) Now, FSG is moving 'cause they're a bit too cheap for the rising rents on their Union Square offices; nobody wants to spend money on something "inessential." [New Yorker]

12:36 PM on Mon Feb 25 2008
By Sheila
521 views
4 comments

Comments

belltolls at 12:44 PM on 02/25/08
Reply by Email
*
Connectedness Index: 209

Only Bartleby the Scrivener could have liked that building.
TimeWarnerRhymeAnaheim at 02:18 PM on 02/25/08
Reply by Email
*

I recall seeing that Roger Straus ate lunch at Union Square Cafe every day, and also remember when several good writers in their stable defected to other houses for better money.

Once was in their offices myself. Did need new paint!
debord at work at 03:37 PM on 02/25/08
Reply by Email
*

also, a super fell down their elevator shaft once; the building also felt like a 50s era public school building on the inside.
famousauthor at 05:45 PM on 02/25/08
Reply by Email
*

I've never been inside, but the outside looks rather charming. Will the new offices be in a strip mall or an inhuman glass box? Or in Hoboken?