Contributors

Contributing editor John Richardson took a break from writing his biography of Picasso "to do some sleuthing into the private life of the great Post-Impressionist Pierre Bonnard." Bonnard's wife, Marthe, persuaded her husband to lead a reclusive, almost hermetic life. On page 214, Richardson assesses one of the art world's most mysterious couples—and the battle over Bonnard's estate.

"Fifteen years ago, I was offered a job in New York," says Lynn Hirschberg, who in this issue profiles cover subject Jerry Seinfeld. "I packed everything up and moved. When I got here, I learned that the job was nonexistent." Hirschberg, who has lived in New York since that fateful day, grew up in Los Angeles. "It's better to write about L.A. in New York, and vice versa," says Hirschberg, who, like Seinfeld, feels more comfortable in Manhattan.

Kate Summerscale was writing obituaries at the London Daily Telegraph in 1993 when a woman alerted her to the death (and extraordinary life) of the cross-dressing, motorboat-racing champion Marion "Joe" Carstairs, who soon became the subject of Summerscale's first book, The Queen of Whale Cay, excerpted on page 208. Summerscale sees little similarity between her subject and herself, saying, "I don't even know how to drive."

FOR DETAILS, SEE CREDITS PAGE

CONTINUED ON PAGE 52

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 48

Special correspondent Dominick Dunne, author of the best-selling Another City, Not My Own, reports on this year's Paris couture shows on page 198. "They were suffering from economic despair in France," Dunne says, "but you wouldn't know it from the people I saw there." While Dunne admired the collections, he had the most fun at the legendary Ritz hotel. "I love hotel life," he says. "You know—lobby life."

"It's wonderful to be in Paris, amidst women dressing backstage," says contributing photographer Jonathan Becker, whose shots of the Paris couture shows appear on page 198. Becker, who is fascinated by Brassai's portraits of the Folies-Bergere women, lived in Paris during the 1970s. He endlessly roamed the city streets— and, when tired, slept in Francois Truffaut's maid's quarters.

"I continue to be astonished at how tolerant everyone feels toward the president," says contributor Marjorie Williams, who on page 194 assesses the relatively quiet feminist response to Zippergate. "I moved from New York to Washington, D.C., the same week Geraldine Ferraro was nominated for the vicepresidency, which may have been the key moment when feminists identified themselves with the Democratic Party," says Williams.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 56

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 52

Contributing editor Bruce Feirstein, who co-wrote the "Watergate vs. Zippergate" chart on page 170, began his career in Boston, where he wrote political advertising. Then, in 1993, he enraged the Clinton administration when he suggested in print that "the first thing Bill should do under Hillary's health care plan is check to see if he's covered for a spine implant."

When Jack Olsen was in college, his criminology class visited a prison. "There were guys in there who looked just like me," he recalls. "I had to find out how they were different." He took up writing and soon became one of the world's most successful true-crime writers. His article about a Gypsy family who allegedly poisoned elderly men, which appears on page 98, inspired his latest book, Hastened to the Grave.

"The degree of emotional stress involved is higher than in war," contributing editor William Prochnau says of international-kidnapping negotiations, which he writes about on page 134. Stress consumes the victim, the victim's family, and, in this case, the reporter covering the situation. After calling a man who had been kidnapped years earlier—and who didn't want to be reminded of the experience—"I felt guilty for two weeks," Prochnau says.

"If they were nothing but business, they wouldn't interest me," Ron Chernow says of his acclaimed biographies about the J. P. Morgan dynasty, which earned Chernow the National Book Award, and the Warburg investment-banking family. An excerpt from Chernow's new book, Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., begins on page 224. "Great human and political dramas were played out in their lives," Chernow says of the Rockefellers.

FOR DETAILS, SEE CREDITS PAGE