Kurt Andersen

K-III Communications named Caroline Miller editor in chief of New York magazine, replacing Kurt Andersen, who left the company in August.

The public intellectual has become a rare creature in America, but Kurt Andersen has helped keep it from going extinct. He co-founded Spy magazine, was editor of New York magazine and now writes pieces like Time's 2011 person of the year story, the Protester. These days, though, he mostly splits his time between hosting "Studio 360," broadcast weekly to 160 NPR stations, and writing the occasional bestselling novel. His next book, "True Believers" (Random House: 447 pp., $27), comes out Tuesday.

For a visionary, Kurt Andersen is keeping it pretty low-key. The writer is sitting quietly in blazer and jeans in front of a class at Pasadena's Art Center College of Design. He's not just a visiting professor but the school's visionary in residence. The class' students, with their retro hats, black duds and horizontal stripes, could be making a French New Wave film or rehearsing the latest edition of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Kurt Andersen, a founder of the satirical magazine Spy and former editor of New York magazine, is getting back into publishing, this time as editorial director of Colors, the once-provocative glossy published by fashion company Benetton. Andersen, 49, who reenters the magazine world after a few years of hosting a cultural program on public radio and completing his second novel, will try to restore buzz to a publication that has failed to attract much attention recently.

Forget bestseller lists. If you want to know what new book is hot, walk through an airplane and see which hardcover has become the preferred traveling companion. Stuart Gavert, a hair colorist who works in his own salon in Beverly Hills and ministers to a loyal New York clientele as well, flies between the coasts twice a month. "The last time I went to New York," he said recently, "six people in business class were reading 'Turn of the Century.'

For a visionary, Kurt Andersen is keeping it pretty low-key. The writer is sitting quietly in blazer and jeans in front of a class at Pasadena's Art Center College of Design. He's not just a visiting professor but the school's visionary in residence. The class' students, with their retro hats, black duds and horizontal stripes, could be making a French New Wave film or rehearsing the latest edition of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Who is Celia Brady and why is she saying all those terrible things about Hollywood? Brady is the pseudonymous show business columnist for Spy magazine, the 2-year-old New York-based satirical monthly that startled the journalism world with its cutting-down-to-size exposes about the Rich and Famous.

The public intellectual has become a rare creature in America, but Kurt Andersen has helped keep it from going extinct. He co-founded Spy magazine, was editor of New York magazine and now writes pieces like Time's 2011 person of the year story, the Protester. These days, though, he mostly splits his time between hosting "Studio 360," broadcast weekly to 160 NPR stations, and writing the occasional bestselling novel. His next book, "True Believers" (Random House: 447 pp., $27), comes out Tuesday.

LIKE many readers, I love historical fiction that transports me back to a particular place in the world and immerses me fully and imaginatively in the lives of its inhabitants. I remember finding, when I was very young, a paperback historical romance set in biblical times that began in Egypt, moved to Galilee and ended at Masada; that's when I realized how vividly fiction can re-create places and lives.

LIKE many readers, I love historical fiction that transports me back to a particular place in the world and immerses me fully and imaginatively in the lives of its inhabitants. I remember finding, when I was very young, a paperback historical romance set in biblical times that began in Egypt, moved to Galilee and ended at Masada; that's when I realized how vividly fiction can re-create places and lives.

ELEGIES for bygone cult magazines -- once blazingly hip, now defunct or compromised -- have come to make up their own genre. Even the finest examples (Gary Wolf on Wired, Marc Weingarten on the early days of New York and Rolling Stone) share a template. In the beginning was ardor: a handful of ambitious, attractive youths in a soundtracked montage of halcyon days and all-night editorial debauches.

Kurt Andersen, a founder of the satirical magazine Spy and former editor of New York magazine, is getting back into publishing, this time as editorial director of Colors, the once-provocative glossy published by fashion company Benetton. Andersen, 49, who reenters the magazine world after a few years of hosting a cultural program on public radio and completing his second novel, will try to restore buzz to a publication that has failed to attract much attention recently.

Forget bestseller lists. If you want to know what new book is hot, walk through an airplane and see which hardcover has become the preferred traveling companion. Stuart Gavert, a hair colorist who works in his own salon in Beverly Hills and ministers to a loyal New York clientele as well, flies between the coasts twice a month. "The last time I went to New York," he said recently, "six people in business class were reading 'Turn of the Century.'

K-III Communications named Caroline Miller editor in chief of New York magazine, replacing Kurt Andersen, who left the company in August.

ELEGIES for bygone cult magazines -- once blazingly hip, now defunct or compromised -- have come to make up their own genre. Even the finest examples (Gary Wolf on Wired, Marc Weingarten on the early days of New York and Rolling Stone) share a template. In the beginning was ardor: a handful of ambitious, attractive youths in a soundtracked montage of halcyon days and all-night editorial debauches.

Who is Celia Brady and why is she saying all those terrible things about Hollywood? Brady is the pseudonymous show business columnist for Spy magazine, the 2-year-old New York-based satirical monthly that startled the journalism world with its cutting-down-to-size exposes about the Rich and Famous.