Jade: Where is the F in FSG?

Kachka begins Hot House by describing Straus and Giroux's memorial services. My initial response was, what about Farrar? Even now after finishing the book I am still questioning Farrar's significance at FSG. He was barely mentioned, overshadowed by Straus's personality, Giroux's talent, and Galassi's success. Was his sole contribution to the company his support of Straus during the first few years? Even at the end of the book he isn't mentioned, as though his influence on the company had died out a long time ago. In my opinion, this is just one example of how unbalanced Hot House was to read. Particularly within chapters, there wasn't any building momentum, but plenty of slightly related anecdotes. As we discussed in class, there was also an odd tension between FSG's record as a publishing house and Straus's personal life. It's a fair argument to say that both are needed to understand FSG's legacy, but I think the two subjects could have been merged more neatly. Many times as the book progressed I wondered if the sexy parts were included simply to make the book more appealing, more sellable, an ironic opposition to FSG's literature. I believe that Straus's intense, dominating character would have come across just as plainly without the snippets of gossip Kachka included from FSG workers. Tangentially, I also found it interesting that a decent amount of FSG editors and assistants were women—is this a normal trend in publishing houses? Has it always been like this?