Anthony Haden-Guest
Encyclopedia
Anthony Haden-Guest is a British-American writer
, reporter, cartoonist
, art critic
, poet
, and socialite
who lives in New York
and London
. He is a frequent contributor to major magazines and has had several books published.
, Haden-Guest is the son of Peter Haden-Guest
, a United Nations
diplomat
who later became 4th Baron Haden-Guest
. His mother was Elisabeth Haden-Guest
, née Louise Ruth Wolpert. As Haden-Guest was born before his parents' marriage, upon his father's death the peerage
passed to his younger half-brother, Christopher Guest
, a comedian, actor, writer, director, musician and Grammy Award
-winning composer.
A humorous blurb
on the back cover of The Chronicles of Now, a book of Haden-Guest's cartoons published by Allworth Press, reads as follows:
Through Christopher Guest, Haden-Guest is brother-in-law of actress Jamie Lee Curtis
. The heir presumptive
to the barony is actor Nicholas Guest
, younger half-brother of Anthony and brother to Christopher.
His drawings have appeared in the New York Observer
and he has contributed articles and stories to the Sunday Telegraph
, Vanity Fair
, The New Yorker
, Paris Review
, Sunday Times, Esquire
, GQ (UK), The Observer
, Radar
and other major publications. In 1979 he was awarded a New York Emmy for writing and narrating the PBS documentary The Affluent Immigrants
.
Haden-Guest frequently turns to upscale Manhattan
social life for his subject matter as seen in the following sample of his work from Rolling Stone
:
One reviewer said about Haden-Guest's book The Last Party: Studio 54, Disco|Disco and the Culture of the Night, published by William Morrow & Co.,
Haden-Guest was a guest on Charlie Rose
. while promoting his book True Colors: The Real Life of the Art World, published by Grove Atlantic
.
:
In response to a suggestion that Peter Fallow in the Tom Wolfe
novel The Bonfire of the Vanities
(1987) was based on British expatriate journalist Christopher Hitchens
, Hitchens said that Haden-Guest was a more likely candidate. A website maintained by the University of Kent
cites Haden-Guest as the inspiration for Fallow.
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, reporter, cartoonist
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
, art critic
Art critic
An art critic is a person who specializes in evaluating art. Their written critiques, or reviews, are published in newspapers, magazines, books and on web sites...
, poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, and socialite
Socialite
A socialite is a person who participates in social activities and spends a significant amount of time entertaining and being entertained at fashionable upper-class events....
who lives in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. He is a frequent contributor to major magazines and has had several books published.
Family
Born in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Haden-Guest is the son of Peter Haden-Guest
Peter Haden-Guest, 4th Baron Haden-Guest
Peter Haden-Guest, 4th Baron Haden-Guest , was a British United Nations diplomat and member of the British House of Lords...
, a United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
diplomat
Diplomat
A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...
who later became 4th Baron Haden-Guest
Baron Haden-Guest
Baron Haden-Guest, of Saling in the County of Essex, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1950 for the Labour politician Leslie Haden-Guest. He had previously represented Southwark North and Islington North in the House of Commons...
. His mother was Elisabeth Haden-Guest
Elisabeth Furse
Elisabeth Furse was a Communist activist, World War II resistance escape route organizer, London bistro proprietress, and an early member of the Association of Cinematograph and Television Technicians ....
, née Louise Ruth Wolpert. As Haden-Guest was born before his parents' marriage, upon his father's death the peerage
Peerage
The Peerage is a legal system of largely hereditary titles in the United Kingdom, which constitute the ranks of British nobility and is part of the British honours system...
passed to his younger half-brother, Christopher Guest
Christopher Guest
Christopher Haden-Guest, 5th Baron Haden-Guest , better known as Christopher Guest, is an American screenwriter, composer, musician, director, actor and comedian. He is most widely known in Hollywood for having written, directed and starred in several improvisational "mockumentary" films that...
, a comedian, actor, writer, director, musician and Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
-winning composer.
A humorous blurb
Blurb
A blurb is a short summary or some words of praise accompanying a creative work, usually used on books without giving away any details, that is usually referring to the words on the back of the book jacket but also commonly seen on DVD and video cases, web portals, and news websites.- History :The...
on the back cover of The Chronicles of Now, a book of Haden-Guest's cartoons published by Allworth Press, reads as follows:
Boring, pompous, and a complete and utter waste of time. I don’t know what my brother was thinking.
—Christopher Guest.
Through Christopher Guest, Haden-Guest is brother-in-law of actress Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis is an American actress and author. Although she was initially known as a "scream queen" because of her starring roles in several horror films early in her career, such as Halloween, The Fog, Prom Night and Terror Train, Curtis has since compiled a body of work that spans many...
. The heir presumptive
Heir Presumptive
An heir presumptive or heiress presumptive is the person provisionally scheduled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of an heir or heiress apparent or of a new heir presumptive with a better claim to the position in question...
to the barony is actor Nicholas Guest
Nicholas Guest
Nicholas Haden-Guest is an American actor. He primarily works as a voice actor, but is best known for a TV role, as the principal in the NBC teen sitcom, USA High.-Personal life:...
, younger half-brother of Anthony and brother to Christopher.
Career
Haden-Guest writes a weekend column on art collection for the Financial TimesFinancial Times
The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
His drawings have appeared in the New York Observer
New York Observer
The New York Observer is a weekly newspaper first published in New York City on September 22, 1987, by Arthur L. Carter, a very successful former investment banker with publishing interests. The Observer focuses on the city's culture, real estate, the media, politics and the entertainment and...
and he has contributed articles and stories to the Sunday Telegraph
Sunday Telegraph
The Sunday Telegraph is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in February 1961. It is the sister paper of The Daily Telegraph, but is run separately with a different editorial staff, although there is some cross-usage of stories...
, Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
, The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, Paris Review
Paris Review
The Paris Review is a literary quarterly founded in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen and George Plimpton. Plimpton edited the Review from its founding until his death in 2003. In its first five years, The Paris Review published works by Jack Kerouac, Philip Larkin, V. S...
, Sunday Times, Esquire
Esquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
, GQ (UK), The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
, Radar
Radar (magazine)
RadarOnline is an American online publication. It started as a magazine first printed in 2003 as a test issue, relaunched twice in 2005 and 2006, and ceased publication in 2008. The magazine published articles on entertainment, fashion, politics, and human interest...
and other major publications. In 1979 he was awarded a New York Emmy for writing and narrating the PBS documentary The Affluent Immigrants
Eurotrash (term)
Eurotrash is a derogatory term used in North America for Europeans, particularly those perceived to be arrogant, affluent, and expatriates in the United States....
.
Haden-Guest frequently turns to upscale Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
social life for his subject matter as seen in the following sample of his work from Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
:
The lead singer had been married to one of those decadent EuropeEuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an rich so numerous in Manhattan nowadays - "International White TrashEurotrash (term)Eurotrash is a derogatory term used in North America for Europeans, particularly those perceived to be arrogant, affluent, and expatriates in the United States....
," as the uncharitable put it - and there was a sizable splinter group of fashionable uptown faces cruising among the downtown regulars, their expressions mingling curiosity, distaste, alarm. We fetched drinks. Making small talk would have been strenuous...We left. He got into a MaseratiMaseratiMaserati is an Italian luxury car manufacturer established on December 1, 1914, in Bologna. The company's headquarters is now in Modena, and its emblem is a trident. It has been owned by the Italian car giant Fiat S.p.A. since 1993...
the color of arterial blood. The three of us followed in the rich girl's MercedesMercedes-BenzMercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...
. Although almost brand-new, it was already dented and scarred by careless driving.
One reviewer said about Haden-Guest's book The Last Party: Studio 54, Disco|Disco and the Culture of the Night, published by William Morrow & Co.,
British socialite and writer Anthony Haden-Guest has been a champion party-goer for more than 30 years. There are few people more qualified to lead a reader, as he does in The Last Party, past the velvet ropes and doorman and into the tornado of 1970s disco, drug excess, and excessive sex that was Studio 54Studio 54Studio 54 was a highly popular discotheque from 1977 until 1991, located at 254 West 54th Street in Manhattan, New York, USA. It was originally the Gallo Opera House, opening in 1927, after which it changed names several times, eventually becoming a CBS radio and television studio. In 1977 it...
. Unlike some of his contemporaries whose memories are dulled by years of hard living, Haden-Guest seems to actually recall many of his experiences at Studio. His book is therefore part personal memoir, part reportage.
Haden-Guest was a guest on Charlie Rose
Charlie Rose (talk show)
Charlie Rose is an American television interview show, with Charlie Rose as executive producer, executive editor, and host. The show is syndicated...
. while promoting his book True Colors: The Real Life of the Art World, published by Grove Atlantic
Grove/Atlantic Inc.
Grove/Atlantic, Inc. is a New York-based independent publishing house that was formed by the merger of Grove Press and Atlantic Monthly Press. Grove/Atlantic's imprints publish literary fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, and translations...
.
Personality
Haden-Guest is known for being humorously irreverent, as seen in the following quote on Gawker.comGawker.com
Gawker is a newsmagazine/blog based in New York City that bills itself as "the source for daily Manhattan media news and gossip" and focuses on celebrities and the media industry....
:
The massive streak of PuritanismReligious fanaticismReligious fanaticism is fanaticism related to a person's, or a group's, devotion to a religion. However, religious fanaticism is a subjective evaluation defined by the culture context that is performing the evaluation. What constitutes fanaticism in another's behavior or belief is determined by the...
in AmericaUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
has reasserted itself, especially amongst liberalLiberalismLiberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
s. When I moved to New York there were still a bunch of good writers, often half-drunk, but still very good writers. That doesn't exist anymore. Where do they go? They probably go and teach at BardBard CollegeBard College, founded in 1860 as "St. Stephen's College", is a small four-year liberal arts college located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.-Location:...
.
In response to a suggestion that Peter Fallow in the Tom Wolfe
Tom Wolfe
Thomas Kennerly "Tom" Wolfe, Jr. is a best-selling American author and journalist. He is one of the founders of the New Journalism movement of the 1960s and 1970s.-Early life and education:...
novel The Bonfire of the Vanities
The Bonfire of the Vanities
The Bonfire of the Vanities is a 1987 novel by Tom Wolfe. The story is a drama about ambition, racism, social class, politics, and greed in 1980s New York City and centers on four main characters: WASP bond trader Sherman McCoy, Jewish assistant district attorney Larry Kramer, British expatriate...
(1987) was based on British expatriate journalist Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Eric Hitchens is an Anglo-American author and journalist whose books, essays, and journalistic career span more than four decades. He has been a columnist and literary critic at The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Slate, World Affairs, The Nation, Free Inquiry, and became a media fellow at the...
, Hitchens said that Haden-Guest was a more likely candidate. A website maintained by the University of Kent
University of Kent
The University of Kent, previously the University of Kent at Canterbury, is a public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom...
cites Haden-Guest as the inspiration for Fallow.