So why the delay? And what exactly did being a source for the story mean? Polsgrove, a journalism professor at Indiana University, told WWD she doesn't subscribe to Vanity Fair and had only read the piece last summer. "I felt the story relied on my book as a template," she said, citing three years of research and "winnowing down that material." She added, "Credit would have been enough. I'm not saying he plagiarized." In early September, she wrote to Vanity Fair to say so and called their response "prompt and considerate." Two mentions of the book were added to the online version, and the editor's note was put in.

A spokeswoman for the magazine said via e-mail, "Frank DiGiacomo did read Carol Polsgrove's entertaining book along with other books and articles by and about Esquire's staff while researching his article 'The Esquire Decade.' He referred to Polsgrove's book in his original draft of the story and unfortunately it was dropped in the editing process. We published the editor's note after hearing from Ms. Polsgrove because we thought it was the correct thing to do. That said, Frank did all of his own archival research and conducted his own interviews and, as is often the case with historical stories, many of the best anecdotes were repeated." — Irin Carmon