Daily Features

The Algonquin Hotel’s New Literary History Getaways

The storied hotel has partnered with publisher Simon & Schuster to open a special themed suite for book-lovers.

By Amanda Kolson Hurley, Superscript October 10, 2013

The writer Edna Ferber was a regular at the Algonquin Round Table, where writers, editors, and theater types famously gathered for lunch every day through the 1920s. One day she showed up in a new suit. “You look almost like a man,” Noel Coward told her. “So do you,” Ferber replied. (No wonder the group's members referred to it as "the Vicious Circle.")

The Algonquin's restored lobby is furnished with writing desks and Edwardian furniture in deep jewel tones. Photo courtesy of the Algonquin Hotel.

You can still get a literary fix (minus the barbs) at the Algonquin. Last summer, to celebrate the completion of a full-scale renovation of its guest rooms and public spaces, the hotel launched the Penguin Preview Series at the Round Table, timed to coincide with New York Book & Media Week.

The Book

The Portable Dorothy Parker Dorothy Parker

This year, the Midtown hotel partnered with Simon & Schuster to open the Simon & Schuster Suite on the seventh floor. The decor of the one-bedroom suite includes a collage of book jackets and a bookcase stocked with notable Simon & Schuster titles. New releases and advance copies are offered to guests, too, as part of the turndown service. "Currently, Susan Crandall’s Whistling Past the Graveyard and Thomas Keneally’s The Daughters of Mars are available," says Gary Budge, the Algonquin's general manager.

As word of the new suite gets out, the hotel is starting to get requests for it. Simon & Schuster sometimes puts up authors there. (Budge can’t say who, for privacy reasons.) Rates start at $359. If Suite 710 isn't to your taste, you can always head to the Dorothy Parker Suite on the 10th floor and hone your witticisms there.

The package offers guests a sneak peek of new titles. Photo courtesy of the Algonquin Hotel.

The hotel at 59 West 44th Street. Photo courtesy of the Algonquin Hotel.

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