Tom Rosenthal was author or co-author of 10 books and monographs, on Paula Rego, LS Lowry, Josef Albers and Sidney Nolan, among others, and last year his On Art and Artists: Selected Essays was published, bearing out his friend Anthony Rudolf's point that: "Tom is one of the great publishers of the age, and a very good writer too."
This comment comes from Life in Books: Friends of Tom Rosenthal Celebrate his Seventieth Birthday (2005), published in a limited edition of 300 by Rudolf's extraordinary Menard Press. The book's 39 contributors included Joan Bakewell, John Banville, William Boyd, David Cairns, Günter Grass, David Lodge, Nicholas Mosley, Peter Porter, Brian Rix, Salman Rushdie, Ben Schott, Clive Sinclair, David Thomson, Anthony Thwaite, Gore Vidal and David Whitaker.
As Rudolf explained in his publisher's note, Rosenthal conveniently went to New York at the very moment Rego's pastel portrait of him needed to be secretly removed from his study wall to be prepared for the frontispiece of Life in Books, a beautifully produced book which is rare and wonderful to behold.