To the managing editor:
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When the Beat poets came to Chicago in late January 1959 to give a benefit reading for Big Table “a reception was given in their honor at the Lake Shore home of socialite Muriel Newman.” True. But Muriel was never a socialite–she always had more important things to do, mostly build a collection of modern art that is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she is a trustee. And the party wasn’t exactly a reception; rather a fund-raiser for Big Table. Finally, she gave the first substantial donation to the magazine, getting it on its sea legs. Muriel was elegant, very, sophisticated; she was social; but no fufu socialite was she. She was a student in an adult study group I was teaching; at the time we were reading Ulysses.
Jim Hoge Squashes Chancellor Lawrence A. Kimpton Over Big Table. In 1959 Jim Hoge–soon to be the youngest editor in the history of the Sun-Times–was a graduate student of history at the University of Chicago. Jim was on the staff of Big Table for one issue before he was transferred to the Washington bureau. He did a good, conscientious job; his suggestions for future issues were particularly helpful.
