Boris Kachka in the author of Hothouse: The Art of Survival and the Survival of Art at America’s Most Celebrated Publishing House. He is the Books Editor at New York magazine, where he has also been a writer covering books, theater, film, and other cultural industries and personalities for many years. He has also contributed to the New York Times, GQ, Elle, T, and Condé Nast Traveler. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and son.
A Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and IndieBound Bestseller
“Swashbuckling . . . Exhaustively researched and sometimes gossipy
. . . Hothouse is the hot book that book people are talking about,
and understandably so.”
*NPR*
“Gripping . . . [A] wonderful book . . . Hothouse is Pepys for our
time, an unblinking account of publishing history as it was made by
Roger’s firm, the last of America’s major independent publishing
houses. Roger would have been thrilled to publish this fine book,
including its frequent and deserved criticisms of himself.”
*Jason Epstein, The New York Review of Books*
"Riveting . . . Stellar . . . A vivid narrative . . . Hothouse fits
nicely on a shelf next to entertaining business books such as
Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs or Michael Lewis’ Moneyball."
*Dallas Morning News*
“Valuable . . . [A] vigorous and often diverting trot through the
history of an important cultural institution . . . No one has
previously anatomized a publishing house in such depth . . .
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, moreover, is well worth anatomizing. It’s
had a larger-than-life central character, an amusing cast of
secondary characters, and a history replete with drama. Most
important, it has maintained an amazingly consistent level of
quality.”
*The New Yorker*
“Hothouse simmers with gossipy tales of publishing . . . and [is]
blessed with real-life characters who could star in any sexy novel.
. . . It’s not a book just for intellectuals.”
*USA Today*
“Vivid . . . Witty . . . Immensely enjoyable . . . Kachka sets
forth a strikingly unexpurgated history of FSG, impressively
researched, rich in anecdotes and journalistically balanced.”
*The Washington Post*
"Excellent . . . Hothouse is as engrossing as a biography of any
major cultural icon."
*NPR*
“Hothouse is a thrilling look at the heyday of the publishing
industry . . . [and] the man who, as Kachka points out, shaped the
postwar intellectual tone in this country through the sheer dint of
his brazenness and charm.”
*Entertainment Weekly*
“Irresistible . . . Juicy history . . . A delectable story about
the intersection of art, commerce, passion and personalities. . . .
Hothouse feels like a party where you’re surprised to discover that
you know—and admire—most of the other guests.”
*Los Angeles Times*
“What is it about literary types? Oh, the sex! Oh, the emotional
drama! And, oh, what tremendous fun it all is to read about when
we’re in the hands of a writer who knows how to spin a savory tale.
So it is with Boris Kachka’s delectably gossipy Hothouse, a deeply
researched, jam-packed, surprisingly hard-to-put-down history of
the eminent publishing house Farrar, Straus & Giroux that escapes
lit-nerd ghettoization by the sheer force of its storytelling. . .
. Hothouse is a ripping read.”
*The Boston Globe*
“Colorful history . . . Hothouse isn’t a management book; it’s a
narrative of large personalities at play. Yet out of it comes a
clear account of how to thrive in a tough commercial environment. .
. . Kachka tells the story of the house’s ‘class-mass’ success in
delicious detail.”
*The Wall Street Journal*
“Dishy . . . Entertaining . . . [A] vivid account.”
*The New Republic*
“A roaring chronicle . . . For anyone with a sweet tooth for the
book world or a thought and a care for American culture after the
Second World War, the book is a brightly lit, well-stocked candy
store. . . . It’s also a superb business story, revealing how an
enterprise became an institution. . . . [An] essential book.”
*Bookforum*
“The truth about industry books is that they rarely interest those
who live and breathe outside of the industry in question. In other
words, people on the street rarely clamor for tours of the office
buildings above them. The rare ability not only to lead the reader
in, but induce him to want to stay and peer into the filing
cabinets is what makes Boris Kachka’s first book Hothouse something
of a masterpiece of business biography. . . . The real success of
Hothouse lies in its telling, and Kachka manages a commanding
momentum through decades at full wingspan.”
*Interview*
“A rough-and-tumble, heroic tale . . . Kachka takes us back to the
black-and-white era when good old-fashioned hardcovers stood
unassailably at the very heart of the culture. . . . I loved
reading the spiky, spicy evocation of the company’s good old
days.”
*Jonathan Galassi, New York magazine*
“Scintillating . . . Crammed with delicious anecdotes . . . [A]
compulsively readable tale of the creation, triumphs and
tribulations of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.”
*The Forward*
“A juicy account of the postwar New York book world . . . Not your
average beach read, Hothouse, out August 6, is one nonetheless—a
Gossip Girl for those fascinated with the literary elite.”
*Harper’s Bazaar, Summer 2013 “Hot List”*
“Farrar, Straus and Giroux is the Versailles of American
publishing. . . . But every palace has its intrigue, as Kachka
shows us in this lively, witty account. . . . The extramarital (and
often intramural) affairs conducted by publisher Roger Straus in
the 1960s and ’70s were legendary—his wife called the company a
‘sexual sewer’—but the entire office apparently would have made Don
Draper blush. Kachka dishes up these cold cases piping hot, but his
research reveals an equally fascinating business story: How do you
balance fine art and filthy lucre?”
*Mark Athitakis, AARP Magazine*
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