EDIE AND ANDY AND BOB

Looking for Warhol's muse in Dylan's lyrics; disenchantment with Jann Wenner's Rolling Stone; and Jeremy Irons's majestic homestead

LETTERS

I loved the Edie Sedgwick pictures in the Holiday issue ["Edie in Andyland," by Lili Anolik]. I did not think there was a photograph of her that I had not seen, but you provided one: the picture of Edie and Andy at the dinner party. Thank you for that.

I just wanted to comment on the rumor that Dylan's "Just Like a Woman" is based on Edie. It probably is not. Dylan reportedly wrote that song with a former or current lover in mind. Edie lives, instead, in the verses of the classic "Like a Rolling Stone." In it, Dylan speaks of her school days: "You only used to get juiced in it." Many people think the "chrome horse with your diplomat" refers to Andy Warhol. Apparently, she spent her $80,000 inheritance in six months with the Factory group. That would mean Dylan wrote, "You're gonna have to get used to it," after Warhol "took from you everything he could steal."

DEBBIE BEINLICH Wheeling, Illinois

BEHIND THE CURTAIN

As Jann Wenner's involvement with Rolling Stone winds down, the excerpt from Joe Hagan's biography makes for a rather sad epitaph for a man whose magazine was so emblematic of the counterculture from its San Francisco heyday on down ["Between the Covers," November]. It suggests that Wenner had been helplessly drawn into the toxic narcissism of a single rock star in much the same way that that star was devoted to his wife. I'll miss Wenner's Rolling Stone for its command of the entire tapestry of the 60s and 70s as well as for its keen political reporting, not just for the commemorations of a man who acted one moment as if he had personally invented peace, then jealously spat bile on his contemporaries the next.

STEPHEN CONNLas Cruces, New Mexico

It makes me sad that the musical group that changed my life was such a "fuckin' humiliation" for John Lennon. Pulling back the veil is always a risky business. This tune it seemed just a particularly harsh glimpse of reality.

CAROL M. JOHNSONCharlotte, North Carolina

FIT FOR A KING

What a wonderful piece on Jeremy Irons's Kilcoe Castle ["Kingdom by the Sea," by David Kamp, October]. As a mostly retired architect, I found it a pleasure to see the love and good judgment that obviously accompanied the task of rescuing the neglected structure. There is not the least bit too much in terms of all the furniture, carpets, and objects in this abode. There were excellent interior and exterior architectural decisions. Certainly Bena Stutchbury should share credit for her contribution to such an extraordinary project following the sad death of her father. I found it wonderful to see the product of taste, decisiveness, and effort. I should confess that I was a longtime subscriber to Vanity Fair who let my order lapse. This has been a clarion call to once more subscribe.

DAVID H. KARPSan Mateo, California

CORRECTION: On page 144 of the December issue ("Performance Artist, " by Mark Rozzo), the person who preceded Andre Bishop as artistic director of Lincoln Center Theater was misidentified. It was Gregory Mosher.

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More from the V.F. MAILBAG

"I wish you well, but farewell," writes Rose Steele, from San Jose, canceling her subscription. "I'm keeping the tote bag." Her valedictory note comes at a momentous time, for this is not only her last issue (apparently) but also Graydon Carter's.

About which a number of readers felt moved to comment. The letter from Cathy Langdon, of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, summed up the feelings of many: "Thanks, Graydon, for a great magazine!!!" Or maybe Alice Cutler, in London, said it best: "Thank you for many years of a thoroughly enjoyable read." Or, possibly, it was Kevin Ross, of Cincinnati, who struck the most representative tone: "I was saddened to read of Graydon Carter's retirement from V.F. He is carrying the torch of a free press for many of us. I can only hope we will still hear from him. I feel I am not alone."

Perhaps less typical was the note from jOjO, who writes, "As the Dalai Lama said, 'We must learn to work not just for our own individual self, family or nation, but for the benefit of all mankind.' Perhaps Mr. Carter could encourage the Dalai Lama to set up a daily briefing with Mr. Trump." Yes! We totally see that happening! We do! Pat Wynn Brown, of Columbus, Ohio, also has Washington on her mind: "Graydon Carter's apt and on-point editorials regarding the presidency of Donald J. Trump should be entered into the Congressional Record." (Breaking: Graydon's departure was in fact read into the Congressional Record, by Representative Steve Cohen; there's video!)

Finally, Elizabeth Ellen, from Ann Arbor, Michigan, gets to the heart of it: "I began reading Vanity Fair on my grandmother's couch, immersed in the glamorous world in which it is itself immersed. But, like the climate, like the earth, from the beginning of time, everything must change. And so, too, my dear Vanity Fair must change. We'll always have yesterday on my grandmother's couch."