Dilettante

True Tales of Excess, Triumph, and Disaster

By: Dana Brown

Narrated by: Dana Brown

A witty, insightful, and delightfully snarky blend of pop culture meets memoir meets real-life Devil Wears Prada as readers learn the stories behind twenty-five years at Vanity Fair from the magazine’s former deputy editor

“Dilettante offers the best seat in the house into the workings of one of the great cultural institutions of our time.”—Buzz Bissinger, New York Times bestselling author of Friday Night Lights

Dana Brown was a twenty-one-year-old college dropout playing in punk bands and partying his way through downtown New York’s early-nineties milieu when he first encountered Graydon Carter, the legendary editor of Vanity Fair. After the two had a handful of brief interactions (mostly with Brown in the role of cater waiter at Carter’s famous cultural salons he hosted at his home), Carter saw what he believed to be Brown’s untapped potential, and on a whim, hired him as his assistant. Brown instantly became a trusted confidante and witness to all of the biggest parties, blowups, and takedowns. From inside the famed Vanity Fair Oscar parties to the emerging world of the tech elite, Brown’s job offered him access to some of the most exclusive gatherings and powerful people in the world, and the chance to learn in real time what exactly a magazine editor does—all while trying to stay sober enough from the required party scene attendance to get the job done. Against all odds, he rose up the ranks to eventually become the magazine’s deputy editor, spending a quarter century curating tastes at one of the most storied cultural shops ever assembled.

Dilettante reveals Brown’s most memorable moments from the halcyon days of the magazine business, explores his own journey as an unpedigreed outsider to established editor, and shares glimpses of some of the famous and infamous stories (and people) that tracked the magazine’s extraordinary run all keenly observed by Brown. He recounts tales from the trenches, including encounters with everyone from Anna Wintour, Lee Radziwill, and Condé Nast owner Si Newhouse, to Seth Rogen, Caitlyn Jenner, and acclaimed journalists Dominick Dunne and Christopher Hitchens.

Written with equal parts affection, cultural exploration, and nostalgia, Dilettante is a defining story within that most magical time and place in the culture of media. It is also a highly readable memoir that skillfully delivers a universal coming-of-age story about growing up and finding your place in the world.

A New York Story

This is an excellent document of a time in popular culture. For me New york is a character as much as a place in this story. New York City has been and hopefully will continue to be a place where magical encounters happen and culture and status meld with blind luck and hard work…and then…the next thing happens :)

Highly Recommend

Fun listen for anyone who loves NYC or wants to learn more about cultural influencers. Dana does a great job filling readers in on what the publishing world is like and the workings of Condé Nast. His tales of NYC made me miss that wonderful world.

I don’t even know where to begin

If you have lived in New York, worked in media and are 40/50 it’s impossible not to love this book. I have replayed chapters, laughed out loud, shook my head at the relatability and sad comedy of it all. Magical.

Incredible!

A great listen that I didn't want to end. I wish it had kept going. Excellent story and excellent writing

A nostalgic romp through 1990s and 2000s NYC

Dana Brown sprinkled that new-kid-in-town wide-eyed magic about living,hustling, and making it in New York in your 20s. His anecdotes of lavish parties and mingling with the upper echelons of society as an outsider, and working with an imposter syndrome resonated strongly with my own experience as an art museum worker. Having been schooled across the Atlantic from the 1990s to early 2000s, I was surprised and delighted to learn of Brown’s friendship and camaraderie with the late British restaurant critic A A Gill, whose bitingly witty reviews I used to pore over in the Sunday Times. Brown also captured with painful accuracy what it was like to live through the rapid change in the media landscape in the 2010s. I look forward to hear what Dana Brown is up to next!