The Epstein Birthday Book Is Even Worse Than You Might Realize

The Powerful Man publishing event of the season—what “ Steve Jobs ” or “ The Lives of John Lennon ” or “ Iacocca ” were to their respective moments—is “The First Fifty Years,” a set of three leather-bound tomes commissioned by Ghislaine Maxwell to celebrate the milestone birthday, in 2003, of her onetime boyfriend and, eventually, fellow convicted child-sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. “The idea behind this book was simply to gather stories and old photographs to jog your memory about places people and different events,” Maxwell writes in the prologue. Her pen swoops and dives, like a ravenous moray eel. She seems so pleased with herself, for what’s about to unfold. And what a team she’s put together: the business executive Leslie Wexner, the private-equity investor Leon Black, the vent