Mad Men and publishing in the early 1960s were pretty much the same business, same characters, same everything: booze-y lunches, shag a secretary, at least if there were any women in the office back then. The woman who became Chairman of Putnam, who sat on the board of Universal and later was the CEO of Penguin, Phyllis Grann, was Nelson Doubleday's first female assistant in the 60s. She wasn't interviewed for the job: she reported, he looked at her and said, "She'll do."
For fans of "Mad Men," we know that much of what we've heard of Roger's book being spoken into his dictaphone has been pretty laughable, and the Sterling, Cooper, Draper, Pryce staff has entertained themselves plenty by sneaking a listen. Grove/Atlantic, the real publisher of the book has joined the joke, saying that it was found in a box "in the basement of the home he once shared with his wife, Jane."
And it's a good thing it was found: "Though it has been out of print for many years," the release continues, "Sterling's groundbreaking book gave readers a unique look at the burgeoning advertising world of the 1960s when it was first published in 1965, and was noted for its unconventional approach to the memoir."
The New York Times reports the following quotes from 'Sterling's Gold: The Wit and Wisdom of an Ad Man':
* Being with a client is like being in a marriage. Sometimes you get into it for the wrong reasons and eventually they hit you in the face.* You want to be on some people's minds. Some people's you don't.
* Don't you love the chase? Sometimes it doesn't work out. Those are the stakes. But when it does work out -- it's like having that first cigarette. Your head gets all dizzy, your heart pounds, your knees go weak. Remember that? Old business is just old business.
* When a man gets to a point in his life when his name's on the building, he can get an unnatural sense of entitlement.
* Remember, when God closes a door, he opens a dress.
Grove was the champion of many a banned book--'Lady Chatterly's Lover,' 'Tropic of Cancer,' and 'Naked Lunch' among them--so you'd think 'Sterlin's Gold' might be at least R-rated. But after an interview with publisher Morgan Entrekin, New York Magazine reports:
A handy gift book, to be sure, and a hell of a toilet read. But Entrekin says there won't be any full-on juicy anecdotes from Roger's colorful past. So those of us looking for more salacious sex stories from the heyday of Bert Cooper and the Queen of Perversions Miss Blankenship will be disappointed...
The book will be released November 16th.