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{{Short description|American writer (born 1951)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}
{{Infobox writer {{Infobox writer
| caption = | caption =
| image = FranzLidz5&25&2009.jpg | image = FranzLidz5&25&2009.jpg
| birthname = Franz (Stephen) Ira Lidz | birth_name = Franz Ira Lidz
| birthdate = {{Birth date and age|1951|9|24}} | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1951|9|24}}
| birthplace = ], ] | birth_place = ], U.S.
| notableworks =''Unstrung Heroes (1991)''<br>''Ghosty Men (2003)''<br>''Fairway To Hell (2008)'' | notableworks = ''Unstrung Heroes (1991)''<br />''Ghosty Men (2003)''<br />''Fairway To Hell (2008)''
| spouse = Maggie Lidz (1976-present) | spouse = Maggie Lidz (1976–present)
| children = Gogo, Daisy Daisy | children = Gogo, Daisy
| occupation = ], memoirist | occupation = {{flatlist|
* ]
* memoirist
* American professional basketball executive
}}
| alma_mater = ]
}} }}


'''Franz Lidz''' (born 24 September 1951) is an ] writer and journalist. '''Franz Lidz''' (born September 24, 1951) is an American writer, journalist and pro basketball executive.


A '']'' archaeology, science and film essayist,<ref>, August 9, 1998 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>, September 29, 2002 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>, September 23, 2009 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>, February 14, 2020 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>, April 11, 2020 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>, June 18, 2021 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>, January 30, 2023 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>, December 26, 2023 – ''The New York Times''</ref> who originated the archeological column "Lost and Found".<ref>, May 1, 2023 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>, June 6, 2023 – ''The New York Times''</ref> He's a former '']'' senior writer,<ref>, – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref name="autogenerated700">, May 6, 2013 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref>'']'' columnist<ref>, December, 2012 - ''Smithsonian''</ref><ref>, November, 2015 - ''Smithsonian''</ref><ref>, May, 2018 - ''Smithsonian''</ref> and a onetime vice president for the ].<ref>, 2016–'17. (Free PDF download). Use search term "''Franz Lidz''"</ref><ref>, ''Smithsonian''</ref> His childhood memoir ''Unstrung Heroes'' was adapted into ] in 1995.<ref name="autogenerated771">, September 21, 1995 – ''Philadelphia Inquirer''</ref><ref name = nyt>, March 4, 1991 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref> - ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>, September 3, 1995 – ''The New York Times''</ref>
He was a senior writer at '']'', a contributing editor at ] ''Portfolio'', and is a correspondent for '']'', '']'',<ref></ref> '']'', '']'',<ref></ref> '']'',<ref></ref> '']'', and has written for the '']'' since 1983, on travel, TV, film and theater.


⚫ == Early life ==
His writing includes the childhood memoir ''Unstrung Heroes'' , the urban historical ''Ghosty Men: The Strange But True Story of the Collyer Brothers'' and the golf memoir ''Fairway To Hell''.


⚫ Lidz was born in ], to Sidney, a Jewish ] who designed the first transistorized portable tape recorder (the Steelman Transitape),<ref>, July 28, 1981 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>{{YouTube|ofQ5X67p8E8|"Steelman Transitape portable reel-to-reel tape recorder"}}, 1959</ref> and Selma, a homemaker. His father gave him early exposure to authors like ], ] and ].<ref>, September 13, 1998 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref name="autogenerated702">, April 8, 1991</ref>
⚫ == Early Life ==


At age nine, still named Stephen before later legally taking Franz as his first name, he moved to the ] suburbs.<ref name="autogenerated77">, April 7, 1991 – ''Philadelphia Inquirer''</ref><ref>, '']'', May 17, 2015</ref><ref>, '']'', May 27, 2015</ref> Lidz attended high school in ]<ref name="autogenerated1"> – May 10, 1982 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref name="autogenerated3"> – March 9, 1987 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref> and college at ],<ref name="autogenerated181"> March 26, 1984 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref> where he was a theater major.<ref name="autogenerated12">, February 9, 1991 – ''Baltimore Sun''</ref>
⚫ Lidz was born in ], to Sidney, an ] who designed the first transistorized portable tape recorder (the Steelman Transitape).<ref></ref> His father gave him early his exposure to authors like ], ] and ] <ref></ref>

At age nine, Lidz moved to the ] suburbs. Lidz attended high school in ] and later college at ],<ref name="autogenerated2"></ref> where he was a theater major.


== Career == == Career ==


Lidz chose ] because he wanted a career that wouldn't go out of style.<ref name="autogenerated2"></ref> Lidz started as off one of three novice reporters at the weekly ''Sanford Star'', where he wrote a column, covered police and fire beats, amongst other things. He also banked occasional finders' fees from the '']'' for story ideas he had passed along. Later, he left Maine to become a crime reporter and write a column called "Insect Jazz" for an alternative newspaper in ].<ref></ref> Lidz was a novice reporter at the weekly ''Sanford Star'', where he wrote a column and covered police and fire beats. He left Maine to become a crime reporter and write a column called "Insect Jazz" for an alternative newspaper in ].<ref name="autogenerated14">, September 21, 1995 – ''Baltimore Sun''</ref> He later became an editor of ''] Magazine''.<ref>, January 23, 1991 – ''Baltimore Sun''</ref>


In 1980, he joined the staff of '']'',<ref name="autogenerated36">, December 23, 1985 - ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref name="autogenerated89">, May 1, 1989 - ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref name="autogenerated6">, December 10, 1990 - ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref name="autogenerated7">, May 18, 1992 - ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref name="autogenerated65">, November 2, 1998 - ''Sports Illustrated''</ref> even though he had never read the magazine<ref name="philly1">, May 7, 2008 – ''Philadelphia Inquirer''</ref> and had covered only one sporting event in his life – a ] in ], ].<ref name="autogenerated101">, September 24, 2010 – ''AARP: The Magazine''</ref><ref>, September 22, 2010 – ''The New York Observer''</ref><ref name="autogenerated702"/> Lidz remained on the writing staff for 27 years.<ref name="autogenerated128">, August 15, 2016 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref> In 2007 he jumped to the short-lived business monthly ''Conde Nast Portfolio'', and then '']'' magazine<ref>, December 1, 2011 – ]</ref> before landing at ''Smithsonian'' in 2012. His first feature story in ''The New York Times'', on making the second descent of the ], appeared on January 30, 1983.<ref>, January 30, 1983 – ''The New York Times''</ref>
In 1980, he joined the staff of ''],'' even though he had never read the magazine<ref name="philly1"></ref> and had covered only one sporting event in his life.<ref name="autogenerated3"></ref> In August that year, he was made the managing editor of the magazine.
Among his most controversial features are essays on reappraising the ];<ref>, September 20, 2024 – ''The New York Times''</ref> reconsidering ];<ref>, May, 2019 ''Smithsonian''</ref> the effects of climate change on glacial archaeology;<ref>, November 2, 2021 – ''The New York Times''</ref> the Pacific Northwest barred owl cull;<ref>"", April 29, 2024 – ''New York Times''</ref> ];<ref>, July, 2017 - ''Smithsonian''</ref> the 2002 Paris-to-];<ref name="autogenerated1731">, January 21, 2002 - ''Sports Illustrated''</ref> ] and the ]' line of succession;<ref>, August 2, 2007 – ''Conde Nast Portfolio''</ref><ref>, August 7, 2007 – ''New York Observer''</ref><ref>, July 13, 2007 – ''AOL''</ref><ref> {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081013160831/http://gothamist.com/2007/08/03/hows_the_boss_s.php |date=13 October 2008 }}, August 3, 2007 – ''Gothamist''</ref><ref>, December 15, 2008 – Bronx Banter</ref> the hijinks of onetime ] owner ];<ref name="autogenerated38">, April 17, 2000 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref>, April 27, 2014 – '']''</ref><ref name="autogenerated41">, April 30, 2014 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref> and a ''S.I.'' cover story with ] player ] in which Collins became the first active male in one of the four major North American team sports to announce he was gay.<ref name="autogenerated18">, April 29, 2013 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref name="autogenerated23">, April 29, 2013 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref>, April 29, 2013 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref name="autogenerated67">, April 25, 2023 - ''Sports Illustrated''</ref>


⚫ == Notable works ==
Lidz's career highlights include a road trip in search of sports on the equator;<ref></ref> 10 days in dog-sledding school<ref></ref>, and a look inside the mind games at the 1987 world chess championship between ] and ] in ], ]. His essay on ] and the ]' line of succession<ref></ref> was called the "scoop of the year" in the 2008 ] collection '']''.


⚫ == Notable works ==
=== ''Unstrung Heroes'' === === ''Unstrung Heroes'' ===


''Unstrung Heroes'' is about Lidz's childhood, with his mother, father and his dad's four older brothers.<ref name="autogenerated702"/><ref>, April 20, 2000 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref name="autogenerated213">, September 25, 1995 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref> He had previously written about two of the uncles in'' Sports Illustrated''.<ref name="autogenerated13">, January 25, 1987 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref name="autogenerated19">, December 20, 1982 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref>
''Unstrung Heroes'' chronicles Franz Lidz's childhood, with his father Sidney and four uncles. Sidney is portrayed as the youngest and sanest. Neighbors indulged him as "Crazy Sid, the mildly crackpot inventor." Lidz's four uncles, the Lidz Brothers, are mostly reminiscent of the inspired, raffish ] in their heyday.


In his review of ''Unstrung Heroes'' in the ''New York Times'', ] called the memoir "unusual and affecting... a melancholy, funny book, a loony tune played with touching disharmony on mournful woodwinds and a noisy klaxon." <ref></ref>] of the '']'' likened the memoir to a "miniature '']''. There's not a false moment in the book, and that is high praise indeed."<ref>http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/61077155.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Feb+20%2C+1991&author=JONATHAN+KIRSCH&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&edition=&startpage=6&desc=BOOK+REVIEW+The+Unlikely+Heroics+of+Unstrung+Uncles+UNSTRUNG+HEROES+My+Improbable+Life+With+Four+Impossible+Uncles+by+Franz+Lidz+Random+House%2418.95%2C+189+pages {{dead link|date=October 2010}}</ref> In '']'', Laurie Stone called ''Unstrung Heroes'': "Astonishing, hilarious, angry, poignant, always pointed."{{citation needed|date=November 2010}} In his review of ''Unstrung Heroes'' in ''The New York Times'', ] called the memoir "unusual and affecting&nbsp;... a melancholy, funny book, a loony tune played with touching disharmony on mournful woodwinds and a noisy klaxon".<ref>, March 4, 1991 – ''The New York Times''</ref> ] of the '']'' likened the memoir to a "miniature '']''. There's not a false moment in the book, and that is high praise indeed."<ref>, February 20, 1991 – '']''</ref> '']'' called ''Unstrung Heroes'': "Astonishing, hilarious, angry, poignant, always pointed."<ref>, February, 1991 – ''Random House''</ref>


In 1995, ''Unstrung Heroes'' was adapted into ] starring ] and ] as Sidney and Selma Lidz, and directed by ]. The setting was switched from ] to ], and the four mad uncles were reduced to an eccentric odd couple. Lidz was unhappy with the adaptation, but was prevented by his contract from publicly criticizing it.<ref></ref><ref>http://books.google.com/books?id=6-QCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA58&lpg=PA58&dq=unstrung+heroes+hebrew&source=bl&ots=WpZ-YXJ4Rs&sig=6IHxhuVT5w_qiMXUhGeG4JwsrwM&hl=en&ei=3dB6S6z9LdGk8AaekqieCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CCwQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=&f=false</ref> In a later essay for the ''New York Times'', he said that the cinematic Selma had died not of cancer, but of 'Old Movie Disease'. "Someday somebody may find a cure for cancer, but the terminal sappiness of cancer movies is probably beyond remedy."<ref></ref> In 1995, ''Unstrung Heroes'' was adapted into ].<ref name="autogenerated771"/> The setting was switched from ] to ], and the four crazy uncles were reduced to an eccentric odd couple. Asked what he thought of the script, Lidz said: "It's very neatly typed".<ref>, September 22, 1995 – ''Entertainment Weekly''</ref> He was unhappy with the adaptation, but was prevented by his contract from publicly criticizing it. "My initial fear was that ] would turn my uncles into ] and ]", he told '']'' magazine. "I never imagined my life could be turned into ]."<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=]|author=Nancy Jo Sales|title=Undone Heroes|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6-QCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA58|date=18 September 1995|publisher=New York Media, LLC|page=58}}</ref> In a later essay for ''The New York Times'', he said that the cinematic Selma had died not of cancer, but of 'Old Movie Disease'. "Someday somebody may find a cure for cancer, but the terminal sappiness of cancer movies is probably beyond remedy."<ref>, January 10, 1999 – ''The New York Times''</ref>


=== ''Ghosty Men'' === === ''Ghosty Men'' ===


''Ghosty Men'', is a 2003 urban historical, and is the definitive history of the ]. Lidz has said that he was inspired by the real-life cautionary tales that his father told him, the most macabre of which was the tale of the Collyer brothers, the hermit hoarders of ].<ref></ref> The book also chronicles the parallel life of Arthur Lidz, the hermit uncle featured in Unstrung Heroes, who grew up near the Collyer mansion. ''Ghosty Men'' (2003) is the story of the ]. Lidz has said that he was inspired by the real-life cautionary tales that his father told him, the most macabre of which was the story of the Collyer brothers, the hermit hoarders of ].<ref>, October 26, 2003 – ''The New York Times''</ref> The book also recounts the parallel life of Arthur Lidz,<ref>, November 2, 2003 – ''Newsday''</ref> the hermit uncle of ''Unstrung Heroes'', who grew up near the Collyer mansion.<ref>, May 16, 2004 – ''Philadelphia Inquirer''</ref>


'']'' critic Adam Bernstein observed: "''Ghosty Men'' has the breezy vibrancy of a magazine story. Like ''Unstrung Heroes'', the new book has to its advantage a sympathy for the forgotten and keen observations about what consoles broken souls. The Collyer Brothers made compelling reading then, as they do now in this short, captivatingly detailed book."<ref>http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/520943591.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jan+4%2C+2004&author=Pack+Rats&pub=The+Washington+Post&edition=&startpage=T.14&desc=If+anything+should+inspire+s+... {{dead link|date=October 2010}}</ref> ], author of ''Low Life'', wrote: "Franz Lidz's ''Ghosty Men'' is funny and moving and full of odd details, and it will make you clean up your room."{{citation needed|date=November 2010}} In his review for '']'', Adam Bernstein wrote, "The Collyer Brothers made compelling reading then, as they do now in this short, captivatingly detailed book."<ref>, January 4, 2004 – '']''</ref>


=== ''Fairway To Hell'' === === ''Fairway to Hell'' ===


''Fairway to Hell'' is a 2008 memoir centering on Lidz' unusual golfing experiences: encountering nudists, llama caddies<ref name="philly1"/> and celebrities like the heavy metal band ].<ref>, November 27, 1986 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref>, April, 2008 – ''ESPN''</ref> ] reviewed the book on the ] show '']'', saying "His estimable wit is also evident in ''Fairway To Hell''."<ref>, May 30, 2008 – ''Only A Game, NPR''</ref>
Fairway to hell is a 2008 golf memoir. Lidz chronicles his adventures on golf courses with personalities like ] and ], and even a ] farmer who raises ] as caddies. The book includes reports from places like ], where 15 holes in a course are guarded by live ], the Fattie Open (where those weighing under 250&nbsp;pounds are penalized), and a pitch-and-putt tournament at a ] ].<ref></ref>

On the ] show '']'', host ] remarked: "Nobody who read ''Sports Illustrated'' during Franz Lidz’s employment there needs to be told that his writing is funny. Happily, his estimable wit is also evident in ''Fairway To Hell''."{{Citation needed}}


== Collaborations == == Collaborations ==


Lidz has written numerous essays for ] with novelist and former ] colleague ]. Three of them appear under the title ''Piscopo Agonistes'' in the 2000 collection '']: The Best Contemporary Humor''. Lidz has written numerous essays for '']'' with novelist and former '']'' colleague ].<ref>, November 15, 1998 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>, January 30, 2000 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>, August 5, 2001 – ''The New York Times''</ref> Three of them appear under the title ''Piscopo Agonistes'' in the 2000 collection ''Mirth of a Nation: The Best Contemporary Humor''.


⚫ Lidz has been a commentator for '']'' on ],<ref>, November 19, 1998 – ''The Tuscaloosa News''</ref> and was a guest film critic on the syndicated '']'', following ]'s passing. The segment did not air.<ref>, April 16, 2000 – ''The New York Times''</ref> He also appeared on ]'s ].<ref name="autogenerated1"/>
⚫ == Personal Life ==


⚫ == Personal life ==
Lidz lives on a six-acre farm in ]'s Brandywine Valley with his wife Maggie (an author and historian at the ] in ]), two daughters <ref></ref><ref></ref> and an assortment of pets. Lidz, when he was a grad student, married his wife a day after her high school graduation. His daughters Gogo and Daisy Daisy (Didi)<ref></ref> were named after the protagonists in ].


Lidz lives in ]<ref>, Fall, 2020 - ''Ojai Quarterly'', pgs. 38-41</ref> with his wife, Maggie, an author and onetime historian at the ] in ].<ref>, January 21, 2010- ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>, February 18, 2014- ''Slate''</ref><ref>, December, 2009 ''Delaware Today''</ref><ref>, February, 2009 '']''</ref> They have two daughters.<ref name="autogenerated118">, June 23, 2003 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref>, November 21, 2004 ''Los Angeles Times''</ref><ref>, ''Newsweek''</ref><ref>, July 23, 2010 – ''The New York Times''</ref>
⚫ Lidz has been a commentator for ] on NPR,<ref>http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1817&dat=19981119&id=EDodAAAAIBAJ&sjid=BqYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2314,3343451</ref> and a guest film critic on ]'s syndicated TV show.<ref></ref> He has also appeared on ]'s show.

== External Links ==
* http://www.portfolio.com/contributors/Franz-Lidz
* http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/writers/franz_lidz/archive/index.html
* http://www.gq.com/contributors/frank-lidz
* http://www.mensjournal.com/the-shark-is-back
*


== References == == References ==
{{Reflist}} {{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Lidz, Franz}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Lidz, Franz}}
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Latest revision as of 04:52, 18 December 2024

American writer (born 1951)

Franz Lidz
BornFranz Ira Lidz
(1951-09-24) September 24, 1951 (age 73)
New York City, U.S.
Occupation
  • Journalist
  • memoirist
  • American professional basketball executive
Alma materAntioch College
Notable worksUnstrung Heroes (1991)
Ghosty Men (2003)
Fairway To Hell (2008)
SpouseMaggie Lidz (1976–present)
ChildrenGogo, Daisy

Franz Lidz (born September 24, 1951) is an American writer, journalist and pro basketball executive.

A New York Times archaeology, science and film essayist, who originated the archeological column "Lost and Found". He's a former Sports Illustrated senior writer,Smithsonian columnist and a onetime vice president for the Detroit Pistons. His childhood memoir Unstrung Heroes was adapted into a Hollywood film of the same title in 1995.

Early life

Lidz was born in Manhattan, to Sidney, a Jewish electronics engineer who designed the first transistorized portable tape recorder (the Steelman Transitape), and Selma, a homemaker. His father gave him early exposure to authors like Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter and Eugène Ionesco.

At age nine, still named Stephen before later legally taking Franz as his first name, he moved to the Philadelphia suburbs. Lidz attended high school in Cheltenham and college at Antioch College, where he was a theater major.

Career

Lidz was a novice reporter at the weekly Sanford Star, where he wrote a column and covered police and fire beats. He left Maine to become a crime reporter and write a column called "Insect Jazz" for an alternative newspaper in Baltimore. He later became an editor of Johns Hopkins University Magazine.

In 1980, he joined the staff of Sports Illustrated, even though he had never read the magazine and had covered only one sporting event in his life – a pigeon race in Shapleigh, Maine. Lidz remained on the writing staff for 27 years. In 2007 he jumped to the short-lived business monthly Conde Nast Portfolio, and then WSJ. magazine before landing at Smithsonian in 2012. His first feature story in The New York Times, on making the second descent of the Zambezi River, appeared on January 30, 1983.

Among his most controversial features are essays on reappraising the dodo; reconsidering Neanderthals; the effects of climate change on glacial archaeology; the Pacific Northwest barred owl cull; Hannibal; the 2002 Paris-to-Dakar Rally; George Steinbrenner and the New York Yankees' line of succession; the hijinks of onetime Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling; and a S.I. cover story with NBA player Jason Collins in which Collins became the first active male in one of the four major North American team sports to announce he was gay.

Notable works

Unstrung Heroes

Unstrung Heroes is about Lidz's childhood, with his mother, father and his dad's four older brothers. He had previously written about two of the uncles in Sports Illustrated.

In his review of Unstrung Heroes in The New York Times, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt called the memoir "unusual and affecting ... a melancholy, funny book, a loony tune played with touching disharmony on mournful woodwinds and a noisy klaxon". Jonathan Kirsch of the Los Angeles Times likened the memoir to a "miniature Brothers Karamazov. There's not a false moment in the book, and that is high praise indeed." The Village Voice called Unstrung Heroes: "Astonishing, hilarious, angry, poignant, always pointed."

In 1995, Unstrung Heroes was adapted into a film of the same title. The setting was switched from New York City to Southern California, and the four crazy uncles were reduced to an eccentric odd couple. Asked what he thought of the script, Lidz said: "It's very neatly typed". He was unhappy with the adaptation, but was prevented by his contract from publicly criticizing it. "My initial fear was that Disney would turn my uncles into Grumpy and Dopey", he told New York magazine. "I never imagined my life could be turned into Old Yeller." In a later essay for The New York Times, he said that the cinematic Selma had died not of cancer, but of 'Old Movie Disease'. "Someday somebody may find a cure for cancer, but the terminal sappiness of cancer movies is probably beyond remedy."

Ghosty Men

Ghosty Men (2003) is the story of the Collyer brothers. Lidz has said that he was inspired by the real-life cautionary tales that his father told him, the most macabre of which was the story of the Collyer brothers, the hermit hoarders of Harlem. The book also recounts the parallel life of Arthur Lidz, the hermit uncle of Unstrung Heroes, who grew up near the Collyer mansion.

In his review for The Washington Post, Adam Bernstein wrote, "The Collyer Brothers made compelling reading then, as they do now in this short, captivatingly detailed book."

Fairway to Hell

Fairway to Hell is a 2008 memoir centering on Lidz' unusual golfing experiences: encountering nudists, llama caddies and celebrities like the heavy metal band Judas Priest. Bill Littlefield reviewed the book on the National Public Radio show Only A Game, saying "His estimable wit is also evident in Fairway To Hell."

Collaborations

Lidz has written numerous essays for The New York Times with novelist and former Sports Illustrated colleague Steve Rushin. Three of them appear under the title Piscopo Agonistes in the 2000 collection Mirth of a Nation: The Best Contemporary Humor.

Lidz has been a commentator for Morning Edition on NPR, and was a guest film critic on the syndicated Siskel & Ebert, following Gene Siskel's passing. The segment did not air. He also appeared on David Letterman's show.

Personal life

Lidz lives in Ojai, California with his wife, Maggie, an author and onetime historian at the Winterthur Museum in Delaware. They have two daughters.

References

  1. "Film; Sorry, Uma, There's Only One Emma", August 9, 1998 – The New York Times
  2. "Film; The Scenery, Though, He Won't Chew", September 29, 2002 – The New York Times
  3. "Biblical Adversity in a '60s Suburb", September 23, 2009 – The New York Times
  4. "Here Lies the Skull of Pliny the Elder, Maybe", February 14, 2020 – The New York Times
  5. "At the Sourdough Library, With Some Very Old Mothers", April 11, 2020 – The New York Times
  6. "She Fell Nearly Two Miles And Walked Away", June 18, 2021 – The New York Times
  7. "What The Ancient Bog Bodies Knew", January 30, 2023 – The New York Times
  8. "What To Do With A Bug Named Hitler", December 26, 2023 – The New York Times
  9. "Ancient Romans Dropped Their Bling Down the Drain, Too", May 1, 2023 – The New York Times
  10. "Put a Bird on It? Ancient Egypt Was Way Ahead of Us", June 6, 2023 – The New York Times
  11. "Classic Archives: Franz Lidz", – Sports Illustrated
  12. "Jason Collins", May 6, 2013 – Sports Illustrated
  13. "Dr. NakaMats, the Man With 3300 Patents to His Name", December, 2012 - Smithsonian
  14. "Behold The Blobfish", November, 2015 - Smithsonian
  15. "Britain's Lake District Was Immortalized by Beatrix Potter, But Is Its Future in Peril?", May, 2018 - Smithsonian
  16. "Detroit Pistons Media Guide: Executive Staff", 2016–'17. (Free PDF download). Use search term "Franz Lidz"
  17. "Franz Lidz", Smithsonian
  18. ^ "Lost In Translation", September 21, 1995 – Philadelphia Inquirer
  19. "Books of The Times; Reality Was Relative and the Relatives Were Nuts", March 4, 1991 – The New York Times
  20. Search: Franz Lidz - The New York Times
  21. "Film: Unstrung And Calling The Shots", September 3, 1995 – The New York Times
  22. "Sidney Lidz – Obituary", July 28, 1981 – The New York Times
  23. "Steelman Transitape portable reel-to-reel tape recorder" on YouTube, 1959
  24. "Beginning at the Ending at the Bates Motel", September 13, 1998 – The New York Times
  25. ^ "From the Editor", April 8, 1991
  26. "A Writer's Relative Chaos: How Crazy Were Franz Lidz's Uncles? We're Glad You Asked That ...", April 7, 1991 – Philadelphia Inquirer
  27. "Arn Tellem and Franz Lidz Are Going to the Hall of Fame", Philadelphia, May 17, 2015
  28. "Franz Lidz & Arn Tellem entering Hall together", Philadelphia Daily News, May 27, 2015
  29. ^ "Letter From The Publisher" – May 10, 1982 – Sports Illustrated
  30. "Letter From The Publisher" – March 9, 1987 – Sports Illustrated
  31. "Letter from the Publisher" March 26, 1984 – Sports Illustrated
  32. "Lidz weaves a tale of family, life on fringes", February 9, 1991 – Baltimore Sun
  33. "Odds are, these guys are real characters", September 21, 1995 – Baltimore Sun
  34. "Redford movie may be filmed locally", January 23, 1991 – Baltimore Sun
  35. "Good Ol' Charlie Schulz", December 23, 1985 - Sports Illustrated
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