Sidney Offit was the man. He was there. And now Manhattan's keenest anecdotist invites the reader to the party of his lifetime. For more than a half century he has interacted with one public figure after another, and now recounts to our utter glee, what he saw, did, and heard. Offit pushes the reader--already satiated--to the greedy expectation after each chapter of, who's next?
Mixing with a remarkable and diverse crowd, led Sidney to run-ins and adventures with Truman Capote ("What kind of guy are you?"), Jackie Kennedy (in a corner), Kurt Vonnegut (who identified Sidney as his "best friend"), the incomparable Toni Morrison, and other bards, muses, and just plain folk. Their conversations are recalled with gentle humor and a keen eye for a New York where casual and spontaneous encounters may shape what the country reads or where a stroll around the corner can change a life..
Sidney Offit's charming memoir of a writer's life ingeniously reflects some of the greatest (and most infamous) literary, political, and sports personalities of our century. His early days in Baltimore (where he met H. L. Mencken and entertained Robert Frost) are as engaging as his later encounters with Dylan Thomas, John Steinbeck, Pablo Neruda, Heinrich Böll, and some of the era's greatest ballplayers: Robinson, Mantle, Mays, and Williams.
Show moreSidney Offit was the man. He was there. And now Manhattan's keenest anecdotist invites the reader to the party of his lifetime. For more than a half century he has interacted with one public figure after another, and now recounts to our utter glee, what he saw, did, and heard. Offit pushes the reader--already satiated--to the greedy expectation after each chapter of, who's next?
Mixing with a remarkable and diverse crowd, led Sidney to run-ins and adventures with Truman Capote ("What kind of guy are you?"), Jackie Kennedy (in a corner), Kurt Vonnegut (who identified Sidney as his "best friend"), the incomparable Toni Morrison, and other bards, muses, and just plain folk. Their conversations are recalled with gentle humor and a keen eye for a New York where casual and spontaneous encounters may shape what the country reads or where a stroll around the corner can change a life..
Sidney Offit's charming memoir of a writer's life ingeniously reflects some of the greatest (and most infamous) literary, political, and sports personalities of our century. His early days in Baltimore (where he met H. L. Mencken and entertained Robert Frost) are as engaging as his later encounters with Dylan Thomas, John Steinbeck, Pablo Neruda, Heinrich Böll, and some of the era's greatest ballplayers: Robinson, Mantle, Mays, and Williams.
Show more"What a wonderful book--as they say in Dublin, 'I couldn't leave it
down!' His novelist's
eye, boundless generosity of spirit, and robust delight in the
strenuous pleasures of
metropolitan life are evident on every page of this irresistible
memoir by a perennially
youthful gentleman of letters." . --Joel Connaroe, president
emeritus of the J. S. Guggenheim Foundation"[Sidney Offit's] latest
contribution to American letters is wise, intimate, and
historically
invaluable. I gulped it down with amazement. Offit made me laugh.
And in just one
sentence, he made me cry .... I love every word. I even love the
commas. But most of
all, I love a big-hearted gentleman curious about people who writes
like an angel."--Patricia Volk, author of To My Dearest Friends
"This astonishing memoir proves that if you know Sidney Offit, as I
do, you are no more
than one degree of separation from everybody you ever heard of, and
I mean Pearl
Buck, Sly Stallone, Borges, Pele .... "--Roy Blount Jr., author of
Long Time Leaving: Dispatches from Up South "This book stands in
the first rank of American autobiographies and gives us a
matchless
contribution to our recent social and cultural history."--Charles
Bracelen Flood, former president of PEN American Center"Knowing Sid
has been one of the great pleasures of my life--he is unique in
today's
world: a true man-about-town, but one who views his friends and
acquaintances with
the greatest generosity and compassion."--Mary Pope Osborne, author
of the Magic Tree House series
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