Having struck a mighty blow against the current occupant of the White House–and, not incidentally, made a tremendous amount of money—swaths of the New York literary and publishing world traveled to the West 67th Street home of Henry Holt president and publisher Steve Rubin, to celebrate its surprising power and relevance.

What else is there to say about Michael Wolff’s inside account of the Trump White House’s first days, Fire and Fury, at this point? In the last few weeks, it’s been the target of a White House suppression campaign; prompted the president to publicly proclaim his own sanity and stability; seen one of its central characters, Steve Bannon, jettisoned from his influential post at Breitbart News; had its methodology picked apart; and inspired a Saturday Night Live cold open. It is, in maybe its most impressive accomplishment, a genuine publishing sensation in 2018. At the evening’s height, Rubin and Wolff appeared together on a mezzanine balcony peering down at the heads of Hollywood Reporter part owner Janice Min, conservative firebrand Ann Coulter, literary agent Andrew Wylie, HuffPost editor Lydia Polgreen, and more, who all looked up and lent their ears.

In some, perhaps unsurprising, news: Rubin was quick to note that Henry Holt had contracted another, different book with Wolff prior to Fire and Fury, and that publication awaits. (Details are under wraps.) “I’m going to turn back to a dinner in December 2016; we were celebrating the acquisition of a book by Michael Wolff,” Rubin said, recounting the Fire and Fury origin story. “The principals at the dinner were Michael, myself, and his editor, John Sterling. Anyway, Michael shares the news, to our absolute amazement, that the president-elect and his senior staff have invited him to spend some time with them during the transition and then follow them into the White House. And, by the way, we’re all drinkers, so the wine was just flowing,” he said.

“The next day, I called up Andrew Wylie. I called him up, and we laid down a considerable amount of money, and we had a deal. And the rest, as they say, is history.” (For the record, Wylie, in the audience, quibbled with the timeline: “That’s not how it happened, Steve.”)

Finally, Wolff himself addressed the crowd, explaining his initial difficulties getting his White House sources to keep their appointments.

“That’s really what the whole process was of literally getting there and of working my way around these people . . . or not. And, actually, I would make these appointments, and I would come in and these appointments weren’t kept,” Wolff said, detailing his reporting tricks. “So, I would sit on the couch. What I haven’t said is what a humiliating experience it is. Because everybody would look at you. You were kind of a pathetic person; whatever appointment you had, nobody was keeping it. I was the guy that you could keep waiting for, like, the whole day! And it was only over time that I started to realize that I was the most non-threatening person in the Trump universe. And as a result, everybody treated me like someone they could talk to.”

Left, publisher Stephen Rubin and author Michael Wolff give a joint speech in front of the crowd; Right, copies of Wolff's Fire and Fury. By Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan/Getty Images.

As the author told of the book’s early days, party-goers giggled and murmured nervously; it is never comfortable to have a known Trojan horse in your midst, even if you are not the target. (As guests raised their glasses in toast, Coulter turned to whisper, “This is going to be the biggest-selling book of my lifetime.” She was one of the more surprising guests at the party, and shared her initial apprehension in attending. “I R.S.V.P.’d to the party before Trump attacked [Wolff], and so for a while I was thinking, ‘Wait, can I go to this party?’“ she said. “Then I thought, ‘Fuck it’—I didn’t leak anything. I can stop by for a cocktail.” Standing next to her, forming the other half of the party’s right-wing column, was Eric Nelson, who had just edited David Frum’s book Trumpocracy that was released Tuesday, in an attempt to ride the Fire and Fury wave. (“It worked out well for us because [Fire and Fury] went out of stock,” he said.)

Author and critic Renata Adler turned up as the evening wore on, wearing her hair in a signature silver braid. Clutching her copy of Wolff’s book, she recalled her reaction reading it. “I thought you’ve really done it. And the ‘it’ depended very much on what the reaction was. And because the Trump people went berserk, that was really very good.”

Asked if she was satisfied by the reaction, Adler replied, “No, because I’m too alarmed by it . . . when Trump came along, I thought, ‘Wait a minute. This is the way you become extinct.’”

By 8 P.M., most of the well-wishers had left or were leaving for dinner parties and other engagements, as Wolff remained by the door handing out copies of his book to guests and thanking them for coming. As one man donned his coat, he turned to shake Wolff’s hand saying, “I tried to congratulate your agent, but he was too busy counting his money. So, I thought I’d congratulate you instead.”