Vogue (magazine) the American issue (the other two men were actors George Clooney and Richard Gere), and the first in which the man was black. Some observers criticized the cover as a prejudicial depiction of James because his pose with Bündchen was reminiscent of a poster for the film "King Kong". Further criticism arose when the website "Watching the Watchers" analyzed the photo alongside the World War I recruitment poster titled "Destroy This Mad Brute". James reportedly however liked the cover shoot. In February 2011, just before the 2011 Syrian protests unfolded, "Vogue" published a controversial piece by Joan Juliet Buck on
When Washington Was in Vogue pieces wered the pieces while researching his dissertation, and followed the trail of authorship to Edward Christopher Williams, the head librarian at Howard University from 1916 to 1929. With McKible’s editorial oversight, the collection was published as a whole novel in 2003 by HarperCollins. As almost certainly the first epistolary novel written by an African-American, "When Washington Was in Vogue" establishes Williams as a Harlem Renaissance writer, and as an innovator in FIVE CHICKENS DIED Critical response to When Washington Was in Vogue was generally favorable. While some reviewers, such as "Kirkus Reviews", called the book “of academic interest only”