A Library of Change

The New York Public Library. 11:50 PM. Photo: JH.

11.4. Mild and cloudy yesterday in New York. Midtown busy but quieter. Many talking about today and the election.

There are a lot of election parties planned around town. Harvey Weinstein and Georgette Mosbacher throw a big one every year, the Ying and the Yang of American political points of view; friends all. Bernstein rainmaker extraordinaire, Paul Beirne’s election party invitation included Senator Barack Obama (On the Phone).

Last night. The New York Public Library held its annual Library Lions Gala. This is a very fancy affair. The chairs were: Mr. and Mrs. Oscar de la Renta, HRH Princess Firyal and Mr. Lionel Pincus, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Fuld, Mr. and Mrs. John B. Hess, Mr and Mrs. Felix Rohatyn, Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Schwarzman, the Honorable Meryl Tisch and Mr. James S. Tisch.

Boomers in the Boom Boom Room. The Library steps were tented from the sidewalk to the top. There was a line waiting to get in. Steve Schwarzman was just ahead of me, solo (his wife was already inside) on his cell. Shirley Rosenthal came up and joined me in line and spotting Mr. S. with his cell, speculated that billions were probably changing hands while we stood by waiting to get into the Library. The movie. In real life, he might have been ordering the car to pick them up at ten-thirty.

Just inside someone told me that Cendant Corporation founder Henry Silverman and his wife Nancy have separated, that the lad has reached that point in his life when he just wants to be young and therefore ... fill in the blanks. Mr. S. has been one of the town’s celebrated tycoons of the 90s and the 00’s. He and his very attractive wife have been married for more than a quarter century and have been a popular couple around town for as long. They met, introduced by a friend at Orsini's restaurant thirty-four years ago. Subsequently the lady introduced the man to Saul Steinberg and fortune flew in the door for everyone. This will be, I would imagine, a very expensive divorce.


	Nancy and Henry Silverman

Whatever the reason for this break-up, the word going around is that Mr. S. wants to taste the wines of youth, meaning, perhaps, those wines we never quite tasted in our youth. That makes sense. I can think of a few others who have that thirst. Doesn’t it go with the territory (age)? The last quench, the pause that refreshes. Mr. S. is, like many of us, a member of the Boomer generation, the pack Dr. Robert N. Butler (Google it) writes about in terms fraught with lamentation and alarm.

I was standing in a moving crowd of several hundred in the Main Reading Room when someone dropped that bit of domestic fibrillation in my lap. The business about youth’s last stand stuck in my craw. Like an old shoe. So too, no doubt, for a lot of those passing by.

The evening began with cocktails in the Astor Hall at the Library’s 42nd Street entrance. This is one of the four star social philanthropic events of New York, the result of development a number of years ago through the auspices of certain individuals including the late Brooke Astor and Gayfryd and Saul Steinberg, (who were there last night) among many others.

The dinner was held in the enormous third floor Deborah, Jonathan, F.P., Samuel Priest, and Adam Raphael Rose Main Reading Room. It was beautifully decorated by David Monn whose star rides high these days over glittering Manhattan. White was the theme, hung in floral swags around the long and cavernous room, white tablecloths and white flowers in silver bowls. He first gained notice working with Gayfryd Steinberg decorating these Library Lions events.

The room with its ceiling murals is majestic, a veritable temple of the mind. This is the 101st anniversary of the magnificent building which opened in 1907. It has grown to be one of the greatest assets of our nation and perhaps the greatest reference library in the world.

They honored Edward Albee, Ashley Bryan, Nora Ephron, and Salman Rushdie. After each being adorned with their medal (on a red silk ribbon), we were shown short videos on each honoree, the theme – of course – why I read; and so should you. Read to live.

Toni Morrison was the Mistress of Ceremonies. Catie Marron, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, introduced Mayor Bloomberg. The mayor spoke glowingly of the progress made in maintaining and building the library, citing his friend Steve Schwarzman’s $100 million gift.

There was a subtext to this grand evening; a however, that being the chill winds of Wall Street. On this day when we will elect a new President of the United States, a day which may just be momentous in the history of the United States of America, we are now living on the brink ... of something, of change, of transformation, of reassessment. Many can feel it in the air. The brilliance of the Obama candidacy, whatever the outcome, is the youth and the fresh. That will always be recognized as hopeful.

The Library, any library in this country, is a refuge, a shelter, a protector of the future, a godsend to a rich young imagination with time to learn. We live in a society today that has a high percentage of illiteracy or at least very weak reading skills. This is our failure. This is a blight on the American Way and everyone’s responsibility. Aside from the pleasure denied those who cannot read, all that is enhanced is ignorance, and ignorance is an enemy of freedom.

Alec Baldwin, Carey Lowell, and Richard Gere at last night's 14th annual ARTWALK NY.

Mary Brosnahan, Executive Director of the Coalition for the Homeless along with Co-Chairs Richard Gere and Carey Lowell, Alec Baldwin, Chuck Close, Kayce Freed Jennings, Theodore W. Kheel, Darryl Pottorf, Christopher Rauschenberg, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Andre Balazs, Mary Barone, Bob Colacello, Shelly and Vincent Fremont, Agnes Gund, Patrick McMullan, Ahn Duong, Artwalk Jr. Committee Co-Chairs are Bettina Prentice and Kipton Cronkite, Jr. Committee members Amanda Hearst, Minnie Mortimer, William Heath, Kristian Laliberte gathered for the 14th annual ARTWALK NY at the Metropolitan Pavilion. They honored Robert Rauchenberg, a longtime supporter of the Coaltion for the Homeless.

Carey Lowell and Richard Gere

Christopher Rauschenberg and Richard Gere

Each year ARTWALK NY unites artists and art-lovers in an effort to help the homeless men, women, and children living in New York City by raising money for the Coalition for the Homeless. Featured artists at this year’s live auction were Donald Baechler, Chuck Close, Ed Ruscha, Jenny Holzer, Pat Steir, Robert Rauschenberg, and Wade Guyton. Sotheby’s Vice President of Contemporary Prints Christopher Gaillard was this year’s auctioneer. Silent auction artists include Jack Pierson, James Nares, Terence Koh, and William Wegman among many other outstanding contributors from the world of contemporary art.