A Cheat Sheet to the Secret Nicknames of the Literary Elite
One way of communicating to everyone that you're "in the know" is to refer to people not by their bylines, but by their IRL nicknames. Everyone will know you're a poser if you don't call A.O. Scott (pictured) "Tony."
Here are some other ones, which you can feel free to pepper your conversation with at the next Lapham's Quarterly party. (Noted: It's mostly dudes on this list, and a lot of New Yorker writers. Maybe it's a prep school thing?)
New Yorker writer Calvin Trillin: Bud
New Yorker writer Kelefa Sanneh: K
New York Times writer C.J. Chivers: Chris
Harvard professor and New Yorker writer Louis Menand: Luke
Late author and Vanity Fair contributor Dominick Dunne:Nick
New Yorker writer Ian Frazier: Sandy
Sterling Lord Literistic head Phillippa Brophy: Flip
ICM agent Amanda Urban: Binky
Author and Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.: Skip
Author and Paris Review Fiction Editor Nathaniel Rich: Nat
New York Times writer Charles McGrath: Chip
New Yorker writer James Surowiecki: Jim
New Yorker writer/editor Hendrik Hertzberg: Rick (or maybe "Rik"?)
Just don't ever call David Remnick "Dave."
