New Interview: Professor Sidney Offit

I had a great opportunity -- to interview the great literary raconteur Sidney Offit on the occasion of the publishing of his second memoir, Friends, Writers, and Other Countrymen. One of the things I told him is that he was one of the first people I ever interviewed -- back when I was in high school, for my school paper. That was back in the day when he was still doing regular on-air debates opposite Dr. Martin Abend on the Channel 5 News.

Here's the Q&A, published on Metromix.com (and perhaps AM New York).

Here's a teaser/spoiler -- but do click over and read the whole thing.

How did you decide these anecdotes would make a new memoir?
I was told to write this book by my son Ken, who’s in his 50s, and though I have paranoia around name-dropping, I realized how fascinated I always was by my encounters. When I was a baseball reporter, my most meaningful experience was with Jackie Robinson and my conversations with Willie Mays. Those snippets of conversation put together a life. Years ago I had sort of a histrionic perception of myself as an introverted writer, but my wife Avodah said to me “You need people” and moved me to go to the New York Public Library to write, where I met so many other writers. Profound people to me were solitary, reserved and thoughtful. Eventually I learned it was people themselves who were always my major adventure.

Sphere: Related Content