The Receptionist by Janet Groth

While working as a secretary at The New Yorker from 1957 to 1978, Groth witnessed the comings and goings of some of the magazine's legendary writers, artists, and editors, like Joseph Mitchell, E.B. White, Renata Adler, and Charles Addams. She's collected the sort of gossipy anecdotes that would have you hanging on her every word at a literary cocktail party. (June 26)