The Andy Warhol Diaries
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 Cover of the first edition | |
| Author | Andy Warhol |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Published | 1989 |
| Publisher | Warner Books |
| Publication place | United States |
| Pages | 807 |
| ISBN | 978-1455561452 |
The Andy Warhol Diaries is a posthumously published book that compiles the personal diary entries of American artist Andy Warhol, recorded between 1976 and shortly before his death in 1987. Dictated to his confidante and collaborator Pat Hackett, it was condensed into an 807-page book from the complete 20,000-page diary Hackett maintained. The book offers an intimate account of Warhol's daily life, social world, business dealings, and artistic concerns, providing a detailed portrait of his later years and his central role in the international art, fashion, and celebrity scenes of the late 20th century. Upon its release, The Andy Warhol Diaries was an immediate commercial success and became a New York Times Best Seller.
After Pop artist Andy Warhol was audited by the Internal Revenue Service in 1972, he started dictating a daily diary to his secretary Pat Hackett at The Factory to keep a better account of his deductible expenses.[1] This eventually grew into The Andy Warhol Diaries.[2]
Beginning in November 1976, Monday through Friday, Warhol and Hackett talked by phone each morning, and he narrated the events of the previous day. Weekend entries were done the following Monday in a longer session. If he were traveling, he would call her from wherever he was or tell her what occurred on the missed days when he returned.[3] Hackett transcribed his monologue onto a legal pad. Later in the morning, she would type it on her typewriter, which turned into 20,000 double-spaced pages of unedited entries. After Warhol's death in February 1987, Hackett reduced the diary to 1,600 pages, remarking that much of the remaining 18,400 pages consisted of "drivel."[4]
Content
The diary opens on November 24, 1976, with Warhol in Vancouver at the conclusion of a trip to Seattle for the opening of the Seattle Art Museum. While on the West Coast, he noted that he attended the wedding of model Marisa Berenson and business tycoon Jim Randall in Los Angeles. Warhol then flew from Vancouver to LaGuardia Airport in East Elmhurst, Queens with socialite Catherine Guinness and his business manager Fred Hughes, returning to his Manhattan home, where he shared an early Thanksgiving dinner with his live-in boyfriend Jed Johnson.[4]
For the next eleven years, Warhol documented his personal and social life, along with his career and daily expenses. The book is filled with candid observations about his famous friends and associates. Michael Gross noted in New York magazine:
The cast of characters ranges from employees to celebrities like Elizabeth Taylor ("like a fat little Kewpie doll"), Martin Scorsese ("coke problems"), Yves Saint Laurent ("he has to take a million pills"), Sophia Loren ("Didn't she f--- her way to the top?"), Elaine Kaufman ("stuffing herself with rolls"), Steve Rubell ("Gave me a Quaalude"), Liza Minnelli ("Give me every drug you've got"), Halston ("he gave her a bottle of coke, a few sticks of marijuana, a Valium, four Quaaludes"), Mick and Bianca Jagger ("She can't go to bed with him because she just doesn't think he's attractive"), Lady Isabella Lambton ("picks her nose and eats it"), Margaret Trudeau ("sitting on the toilet with her pants down and a coke spook up her nose"), Patti Smith ("all I could think about was her b.o."), Jerry Hall ("she had underarm b.o."), Allan Carr ("What a butterball"), Truman Capote ("How does anyone make it with Truman?"), Sue Mengers ("so vulgar"), Barbra Streisand ("West Side taste"), Rudolf Nureyev ("mean, he's really mean"), Raquel Welch ("sweet now that she's come down a little in the world"), Julian Schnabel ("very pushy"), Marina Cicogna ("like a truck driver"), Richard Nixon ("like a Dickens character"), Calvin and Kelly Klein ("a hot media affair"), Mercedes Kellogg ("a fat thing"), and lots more.[5]
The final diary entry dates from February 17, 1987. That evening, Warhol walked the runway with jazz musician Miles Davis during a fashion show at the Tunnel nightclub in Chelsea, Manhattan. He noted that Davis gave him his address and proposed an exchange: Warhol would paint his portrait in return for ten minutes of Davis playing music for him. After returning home, Warhol called Hughes to say he was too exhausted to attend a Fendi dinner that night. He later received calls from Hughes' assistant Sam Bolton and Interview fashion editor Wilfredo Rosado before going to sleep.[4]
Publication
In June 1987, Warner Books acquired The Andy Warhol Diaries at an auction for $1.2 million.[6] The book was published in May 1989.[7] The absence of an index drew criticism from Fame magazine publisher Steven Greenberg and nightclub impresario Steve Rubell, who were frequent subjects of the book.[5] Unauthorized indexes were subsequently published by Spy and Fame magazines.[8] Newer editions of the book contain an authorized index. In 2014, The Andy Warhol Diaries was reissued by Twelve for the 25th anniversary.[9]
