HORSEPLAY Simon & Schuster’s David Rosenthal and Michael Korda invited friends and colleagues to Elaine’s to celebrate the publication of “The Big Horse” by Joe McGinniss. Attendees braved the rain to enjoy fine conversation and hors d’hoeuvres.

In attendance were author Sidney Offit (“Memoir of the Bookie’s Son”) and Racing Daily Form columnist Noel Michaels, who is writing a screwball crime caper involving horseracing.

Also present was Mr. McGinniss’s agent, Dennis Holahan,a Los Angeles attorney, who first met McGinniss through producer Susan Baerwald.

In addition to being a lawyer, Mr. Holahan was once an actor: He played Al Pacino’s banker in “Scarface.”

The other host of the evening, Mr. Korda, works with writers such as Mary Higgins Clark and David McCullough

Mr. Korda is working on a book himself; it’s called “Horse Housekeeping” and it is about how to keep a horse at home. He has five horses at his place upstate.

The title of “The Big Horse” refers to the animal that brings fortune and fame to a stable. The book covers the joys and sorrows of thoroughbred racing. A central figure is P.G. Johnson, who became a leading trainer at all three New York racetracks: Saratoga, Belmont, and Aqueduct.

Among other races, the book chronicles the win of Mr. Johnson’s horse, Volponi, at the 2002 Breeders’ Cup Classic – as a long shot of 43 to 1.

Asked about other Simon & Schuster books, Mr. Rosenthal noted that one hot book is vice presidential candidate John Edwards’s “Four Trials.” Another book he is excited about is folksinger Bob Dylan’s “Chronicles: Volume 1,” slated for publication on October 12.

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SALMAGUNDI SELECTION “This is about the outpouring of artistic expression after 9/11,” said architect Robert Strong at the Salmagundi Club. The show, he said, is about “the importance of art as a healing component to civilization.”

He was among those on hand as awards were given for an exhibition called “The American Dream Post 9/11,” consisting of memorial designs and renderings.

The works, which are on display through July 23, show emotional responses of various creative artists to the tragic events as well as to acts of heroism in the wake of September 11.

The winner for Graphics Merit was William Arbizu. Walter VanGreen won the E. Nesbitt Memorial Hand Rendering Award. Ramsey Carradine won the Digital Citation award for “Reflections,” and Cynthia Karasek won the Color Merit Award for “Looking West on a Cool Night.”

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BOOK READINGS At KGB Bar, journalist Tom Gogola read recently from his forthcoming piece about Roy Cohn, which will be in the anthology “American Monsters.”

New York magazine contributing editor Mark Jacobson is co-editing the anthology with Jack Newfield.Inthe book, Mr. Newfield writes on Justice Scalia, Christopher Hitchens writes on Henry Kissinger, and Errol Louis writes on Chief Justice Roger Taney.

That evening, Nation magazine United Nations correspondent Ian Williams read from his book “Deserter: Bush’s War on Military Families, Veterans, and His Past” (Nation Books).

Mr. Jacobson is at work on another anthology with KGB Bar owner Dennis Woychuk; it will be called “The KGB Bar Nonfiction Reader.”

Surprisingly, President Bush did receive a bit of praise during the readings. One speaker applauded the president for what he has “done for left-wing publishing” in the last four years: The books have “made money.”

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FOX FOES Alexandra and Arthur Schlesinger Jr. were talking on the sidewalk with Christie Hefner outside the New School University after the screening of Robert Greenwald’s documentary “Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism.”

Also seen were Center for American Progress President John Podesta; Columbia University sociologist Todd Gitlin; New York University journalism professor Robert Boynton; cable television host Harold Channer; World Policy Institute director Stephen Schlesinger; and filmmaker Matt Kohn. At a panel prior to the screening in which Columbia University School of Journalism dean Nicholas Lemann and others participated, Arianna Huffington, with her exotically ambiguous accent, said, “We Greeks gave you democracy, and you screwed it up.”

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JOURNALIST JOTTINGS Bob Edwards of National Public Radio told an audience that Fred Friendly, the CBS producer who worked with Edward R. Murrow, was known to throw pencils. “One creased my professor’s ear.”… Here’s a humbling note for journalists: Barner Books, a shop along Main Street in New Paltz, N.Y., has its journalism book section directly above a sign marking the “Trivia” section.

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KNICK-KNACKS We hear that the Village Idiot, a venerable downtown drinking establishment, will close July 31. The proprietors are looking for a new location.