New York’s 92nd Street Y Fires Executive Director

Sol Adler, who had led the busy cultural center since 1988, was removed by the board of directors because of his “undisclosed long-term personal relationship” with staffer Cathy Marto. Marto’s son-in-law, a former stockbroker who had served prison time for fraud, is under criminal investigation for extorting kickbacks while he worked as the Y’s head of facilities.

I Rejected A Doris Lessing Manuscript

Lessing had written the book (The Diary of a Good Neighbour) under a pseudonym (Jane Somers), “partly because she wanted it to be appraised purely on merit, partly out of solidarity with young writers, and partly to free herself from her own literary persona.” James Lasdun, who was the slush-pile reader at Lessing’s regular publisher who recommended rejecting the Somers manuscript, fesses up.