"A Man of This Dimension"

"Take, for instance, the story of Herb Abramson, who returned from the Army in 1955 and was eventually booted from the label. According to Gillett, Abramson returned to find that 'Jerry Wexler was in his seat and couldn’t be moved.' According to Wade and Picardie, Abramson—whose wife, Miriam, ran Atlantic’s day-to-day operations—returned from Germany with a girlfriend (or, as Wexler put it, 'a Brünnhilde!'). In Greenfield’s account, Abramson returns with the girlfriend and a drug habit. ('"Herb was snorting cocaine," someone who knew Abramson well during this period would later confirm.')"

Alex Abramovich in The New York Times reviews Robert Greenfield's The Last Sultan: The Life and Times of Ahmet Ertegun.