The Receptionist

April 9, 2012
Revelatory dispatches from 21 years as a receptionist at the New Yorker—1957 to 1978—expose more about Groth’s (Edmund Wilson) own sense of writerly inadequacy in that pre-feminist era than about the famous writers she worked for. Fresh out of the University of Minnesota, armed with a writing prize and an entrée to interview with the New Yorker’s legendary E.B. White, Groth secured a receptionist job on the 18th floor of the midtown Manhattan building—the “writers’ floor”—with every expectation of moving on to fact-checking or reporting within a year or two. While answering their phones and messages, watering their plants, babysitting their kids, and housesitting, Groth secured mentoring relationships (and regular lunches) with numerous writers like John Berryman, Joseph Mitchell, and Muriel Spark, whom she delineates in touching tributes, yet the simmering subtext to this deeply reflective, rueful memoir is the question why she did not advance in two decades at the magazine. After losing her virginity to a young dissolute contract artist she calls Evan Simm, who ended up affianced to someone else, Groth plunged into a period of acting out as the promiscuous party girl (“Yep, a dumb blond,” she calls herself) before travel, psychotherapy, and graduate school directed her to a path of her own making. As the magazine weathered tumultuous events of the 1960s and ’70, Groth chronicles the many dazzling personalities whose lives touched, and moved, hers.

April 1, 2012

Like 1960s sitcom career girls Mary Tyler Moore and Ann Marie (of That Girl), Groth (English, emerita, SUNY at Plattsburgh; Edmund Wilson: A Critic for Our Time) moved from a small town to live out her dreams of becoming a writer in the big city. After graduating from the University of Minnesota in the 1950s, an employer at a temporary position shared her resume with The New Yorker contributor E.B. White, who then interviewed her for a job at the storied magazine. With neither the experience nor the interest to work in the secretarial typing pool, she was given a position as a receptionist on the floor that housed the writers. She remained in that job for 21 years, spending the time earning a Ph.D. in English, traveling the world, and meeting many of the denizens of the pages of The New Yorker, such as John Berryman, Muriel Spark, and Calvin Trillin. VERDICT An honest and engaging memoir for fans of the magazine and histories of Mad Men-era New York.--Donna Marie Smith, Palm Beach Cty. Lib. Syst., FL

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2012
A nostalgic, wistful look at life inside one of America's most storied magazines, and the personal and professional limbo of the woman who answered the phone. Well before she became a teacher and biographer, Groth (English Emeritus/SUNY-Plattsburgh; Edmund Wilson: A Critic for Our Time, 1989, etc.) spent 21 years (1957-1978) behind the front desk at the New Yorker, taking messages, calming suspicious wives, babysitting and refusing John Berryman's marriage proposals. The starry-eyed daughter of an alcoholic Iowa grocer, she arrived in Manhattan both educated and adorable, hoping for the byline that would buy her freedom. Instead, she had a series of disastrous romances and mostly became friends with the famous. Her steady lunch date was Joseph Mitchell, soon to become crippled by writer's block; her thoughts on why he failed to deliver a great novel are intelligent and fascinating. Another friend was Muriel Spark, whom she recalls as both elegant and generous, if a questionable mother. Legendary editor William Shawn leaves her cold; she describes him as humorless and "sadomasochistic" toward writers. Despite her tendency toward cliches ("fame and fortune"; "it's not who you are but who you know"), this bookish girl from flyover country who became a Mad Men-era hottie, and who found she had to leave this cozy nest in order to save herself, is very much an interesting character in her own right. For readers who can't get enough New Yorker lore, an amiable view from the inside.

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May 1, 2012
Fresh out of college in 1957, Groth managed to get an interview at the New Yorker with a painfully shy E. B. White. She dreamed of being a famous writer but was offered the job of receptionist on the writers' floor of the magazine. Seeing that as a starting point, she began the job of tending to the work details of writers like John Berryman, Joe Mitchell, Calvin Trillin, Charles Addams, and Muriel Spark, to name a few. She never did become one of the writers there but never felt trapped. She had many experiences, good and bad, including Christmas in Tuscany with Muriel Spark. During her time there, she worked on her PhD; and, after 21 years, she left to take a professorship at the University of Cincinnati. She candidly relates her sexual awakening and foolish love choices as well as giving the reader a glimpse into the private lives of some of the writers who passed by her desk. She is witty, honest, and self-deprecating, without whining, and quite a good role model.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)