D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A W E LC OM I N G 2 0 1 6 AT C L U B C O L E T T E I N PA L M B E AC H
Julie and Philip Geier
is the latter). It’s the wit, the delivery, and the irony in the denouement that cracks people up. You get the impression that this is simply how his mind works. Of course, he comes from a generation that learned from its fathers and mothers how to tell a story or a joke. Common sense and decorum was and is the ticket to the tell. John has that. I review these little histories because it explains their guest list. The people who read the papers and the books; who see (or are involved in) the theater; and who participate in the politics (but not as authorities). They were hosting a lot of people they’ve known, 26 QUEST
Candy Hamm and George Gould
many who have known each other for years—and whose children have known each other for years. Gemütlich on Park Avenue, in a “New York state of mind.” From the Jakobsons, I went on down the avenue to see Gay and Nan Talese, who have a townhouse just off of Park Avenue in the East 60s. They and their daughters, Pamela Talese and Catherine Talese, host this party every Christmas Eve. I’m guessing but the guest list might have been a couple of hundred. The party extends throughout the living rooms and the rest of the house. The sisters had decorated “just for the party,”
Anne and Jerome Fisher
Jenny Levy and David Blinbaum
which in Talese lingo, means, “just for the people” (a.k.a. us). It is that kind of a party. You don’t just feel welcome, you feel at home. I first attended a number of years ago when Alice Mason asked Gay if she could bring me along. It intrigues me that the recollection I have of the house itself is different from the house I now go to. It seemed smaller in memory and, although it’s not a mansion, the house was built in 1913 (or so) and the rooms are ample. The Taleses have lived there for decades now. Their girls grew up there. They used the land behind the house to create a large two-story room,
Elizabeth Horowitz
Nancy and Bill Rollnick
which is basically a floored and covered backyard—the perfect entertainment venue. At this annual Christmas Eve party, it is set up with a bar and several large, round tables with chairs. That’s where the guests have dinner, or dessert, or drink. This is a very sophisticated New York crowd. By sophisticated I mean: worldly and literate with many who are literary, ambitious, and imaginative in a city that officially reveres it. There are many well-known writers who join the Talese family year after year. I see Michael Bloomberg there every year. He always looks very relaxed, as if he’s
C A P E H A RT P H OTO G R A P H Y
Darcy Gould with George and Mariana Kaufman