How the World Works
Posted on May 19th, 2011 in Uncategorized | 9 Comments »
Stephanie Morgan, Bernie Madoff’s daughter-in-law and my old colleague from George magazine, has signed a deal to write a memoir.
(The AP gets her name wrong in this wire story that ran in USA Today and the New York Times. Sigh.)
Good for Stephanie—she’s a good person, she probably needs the money, and I expect she has an amazing, if sad, story to tell. (Her husband, Mark Madoff, hanged himself.)
But I was intrigued to find that the book was repped by one Steve Troha, a literary agent of no great renown. (Don’t mean that in a bad way, he’s just not well known—and this is a book that any agent in the world would have repped.)
I thought I recognized the name, and turns out I did: Troha is also representing Rosemarie Terenzio, the former assistant to John Kennedy who once criticized me vociferously for writing American Son but is now writing a memoir of her own (and more power to her for it, I say).
Stephanie used to work in the George art department with designer Matt Berman, who was quoted talking nicely about her in the New York Post; Berman is repped by Terenzio, who runs her own PR firm.
And that’s why a little-known literary agent winds up with one of the hottest books in publishing…. Whether his client list is a good fit for Stephanie, I guess she’ll find out. How this book is packaged, edited and marketed is going to make a big difference for her, and could make her life either better or even harder. I hope it goes the right way.
9 Responses
5/19/2011 9:49 pm
Sorry Rich, I read this twice and am still a bit confused. Do you think that perhaps you could design a chart of the relationships and conflicts?
5/22/2011 12:35 pm
Last weekend the Globe published a special issue celebrating 150 MIT contributions to the US economy… the impact at Harvard was immediate and profound… the timing of the article, just as donors were descending upon Harvard Yard for the festivities that precede Commencement could not have been worse. Fundraising is hard as it is… it would not be helped if donors were prompted to ask about Harvard’s contributions.
The PR machine began to work in earnest. Calls were made to owners of major media outlets. Friends of the University at the highest levels were called for help.
The strategy begins to yield fruit already today. The Globe selects 100 innovators to the Bay State economy and sure enough, Harvard has more than its share among those selected… in contrast, MIT gets none.
This is how Harvard Rules. The donors will be happy this week.
5/22/2011 1:04 pm
and the owners of the Globe/NYT went to which school?
5/22/2011 3:25 pm
Harvard might be best served, in the long run, if it did not assume it can fabricate stories, and stuck to the truth instead.
Here’s one of the awards mentioned in the Globe
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2011/05/22/kathleen_mccartney_helped_invent_a_professional_doctorate_for_education/
Everybody knows this program was designed by Richard Elmore, Harry Spence, and Robert Schwartz.
Furthermore, the future of that program is not served at this time by this story in the Globe, just as there is turmoil at the school of education. More in facebook ‘Reform the Ed School’
One wonders if those at Harvard eager to get this kind of short term publicity are serving the long term interests of the institution.
5/22/2011 6:15 pm
This is one of the dumber conspiracy theories I’ve seen, Harvard Rules Etc. That Top 100 magazine would’ve been weeks in the making, and was probably closed and sent to the printer by the day the MIT magazine appeared. You’re full of shit.
5/22/2011 6:44 pm
Anon 6.15pm, sorry if your feelings were hurt… no need to descend to name calling. What exactly bothers you? MIT’s magazine? here
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/specials/mit150/
or the fact that today’s stories about Harvard’s innovations are not truthful?
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2009/09/harvard-university-to-offer-groundbreaking-doctoral-program-for-education-leaders/
or perhaps the reference to the turmoil in the education school?
http://bottomupeducation.org/2011/04/22/tenure-decision-continues-a-disturbing-pattern-at-harvard/
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/4/29/school-students-ed-education/
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/05/20/qt/sit_in_over_tenure_denial_at_harvard
perhaps you meant to say ‘you are full of sit-in’?
Sorry if your feelings have been hurt…
Do you know the definition of integrity?
5/23/2011 6:37 am
Interesting article
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/education/22gates.html
Mr. Gates gave Harvard 500,000 to hire McKinsey and Co to help redesign their education school.
5/23/2011 6:56 am
Dear all,
A few updates (apologies for a longish email, but we really wanted to be clear in our communication):
1) As you might have heard, the Dean has requested a meeting with “representatives” of the “Reform the Ed School” community, and invited the student body to a June 3 campus-wide meeting on strategic planning.
We replied on Friday that given the number of people who are involved in this effort (90+ on this listserv, over 100 at the Speak Out, over 250 members on facebook), and the fact that a June 3 meeting would effectively exclude the EdM community and others who would have graduated by then, we did not feel that either of those proposals met our needs.
We instead told the Dean that we would be willing to organize as many people to come as possible, were she to be able to attend an open meeting for everyone on either Monday or Tuesday of next week, before commencement. We emphasized the diversity of opinions and thoughts that make up the “Reform the Ed School” community as one of the key reasons why a “few representatives” could not adequately speak for the whole group.
We are waiting for her reply.
2) In the meanwhile, DACED (Dean’s Advisory Committee on Equity and Diversity) asked us over the weekend, to be present at their meeting on Monday, from 12-1pm, in Longfellow 208. The Dean will not be present at the meeting. If you would like to attend, please come. We have asked that it be an open meeting for reasons outlined above.
3) Instead of a sit-in, we will be holding a ribbon-making action in the lobby of Gutman, at 10am Monday. We will be asking graduates to wear green ribbons during commencement to signal their support for diversifying the faculty and curricular offerings here at HGSE. Please come for the ribbon making. See below for an explanation which will be handed out with the ribbons.
Support Community Voice in School Reform: Wear a Green Ribbon Today
As you may know, Associate Professor Mark Warren, whose scholarship considers the role of community organizing in school reform, was recently denied tenure. This decision was made despite high levels of support from faculty and students at HGSE. It is the most recent in a long line of tenure decisions that have systematically removed faculty whose research addresses questions of power and who encourage students to interrogate the status quo. We seek to ensure that the voices of communities, families and youth are not lost in conversations about education and schooling at HGSE.
To show your support for the continued study of community involvement in school reform at HGSE, we ask that you wear this green ribbon during this week’s graduation activities. Please join us as we stand in solidarity with Professor Warren, our students, and their families and communities.
5/23/2011 9:59 am
One of the first things I would suggest before writing a piece that involves a school at Harvard, is to learn the English language.
Interrogate the status quo? Surely you jest!