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| '''Franz Lidz''' (born September 24, 1951) is an ] writer and journalist. | '''Franz Lidz''' (born September 24, 1951) is an ] writer and journalist. | ||
| He was a senior writer at '']'', a contributing editor at ] ''Portfolio'', and is a correspondent for '']'', '']'',<ref>"", 08.23.10 - SI Vault.</ref> '']'', '']'',<ref>"", |
He was a senior writer at '']'', a contributing editor at ] ''Portfolio'', and is a correspondent for '']'', '']'',<ref>"", 08.23.10 - SI Vault.</ref> '']'', '']'',<ref>"", ''Wall Street Journal''</ref> '']'',<ref>"" ''The New York Observer.''</ref> '']'', '']''<ref>, ''Slate Magazine''</ref> and has written for the '']'' since 1983, on travel, TV, film and theater. | ||
| His writing includes the childhood memoir ''Unstrung Heroes,'' the urban history ''Ghosty Men: The Strange But True Story of the Collyer Brothers'' and the golf memoir ''Fairway To Hell''. | His writing includes the childhood memoir ''Unstrung Heroes,'' the urban history ''Ghosty Men: The Strange But True Story of the Collyer Brothers'' and the golf memoir ''Fairway To Hell''. | ||
| Line 19: | Line 19: | ||
| == Early life == | == Early life == | ||
| 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>"", ''New York Times.''</ref> | Lidz was born in ], to Sidney, an ] who designed the first transistorized portable tape recorder (the Steelman Transitape).<ref>, ''New York Times.''</ref> His father gave him early his exposure to authors like ], ] and ]. <ref>"", ''New York Times.''</ref> | ||
| At age nine, Lidz moved to the ] suburbs. Lidz attended high school in ]<ref>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1135950/index.htm</ref> and later college at ],<ref name="autogenerated2">"" 05.10.82 - SI Vault.</ref> where he was a theater major. | At age nine, Lidz moved to the ] suburbs. Lidz attended high school in ]<ref name="autogenerated1">"" - 03.09.87 - SI Vault</ref> and later college at ],<ref name="autogenerated2">"" 05.10.82 - SI Vault.</ref> where he was a theater major.<ref name="autogenerated3">"" - 03.26.84 - SI Vault</ref> | ||
| == Career == | == Career == | ||
| Line 27: | Line 27: | ||
| Lidz chose ] because he wanted a career that wouldn't go out of style.<ref name="autogenerated2"/> Lidz began as one of three novice reporters at the weekly ''Sanford Star'', where he wrote a column and covered police and fire beats, among 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>"", ''Baltimore City Paper.''</ref> | Lidz chose ] because he wanted a career that wouldn't go out of style.<ref name="autogenerated2"/> Lidz began as one of three novice reporters at the weekly ''Sanford Star'', where he wrote a column and covered police and fire beats, among 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>"", ''Baltimore City Paper.''</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">"", 04.08.91 - SI Vault</ref> In August that year, he was made the managing editor of the magazine. | In 1980, he joined the staff of ''],'' even though he had never read the magazine<ref name="philly1">"", 05.07.08 - ''Philadelphia Inquirer''</ref> and had covered only one sporting event in his life.<ref name="autogenerated3">"", 04.08.91 - SI Vault</ref> In August that year, he was made the managing editor of the magazine. | ||
| Lidz's career highlights include a road trip in search of sports on the equator;<ref>"", 02.20.98 - SI Vault |
Lidz's career highlights include a road trip in search of sports on the equator;<ref name="autogenerated4">"", 02.20.98 - SI Vault</ref> a lengthy meditation on Don King's hair,<ref name="autogenerated5">"", 12.10.90 - SI Vault</ref> and a look inside the mind games at the 1987 world chess championship between ] and ] in ], ]'<ref name="autogenerated6">"'', 12.07.87 - SI Vault</ref>. His essay on ] and the ]' line of succession<ref>, 08.02.07 ''Conde Nast Portfolio''</ref> was called the "scoop of the year" in the 2008 ] collection '']''. | ||
| == Notable works == | == Notable works == | ||
| === ''Unstrung Heroes'' === | === ''Unstrung Heroes'' === | ||
| ''Unstrung Heroes'' chronicles Franz Lidz's childhood, with his father Sidney and four uncles.<ref>http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1991-02-19/news/1991050047_1_franz-lidz-uncle-kris-dahl</ref> Sidney is portrayed as the youngest and sanest. Lidz's four uncles, the Lidz Brothers,<ref>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1007145/index.htm</ref> are mostly reminiscent of the raffish ] in their heyday. He had previously written oddball features about two of the uncles in'' Sports Illustrated''.<ref>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1126884/index.htm</ref><ref>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1126257/index.htm</ref> | ''Unstrung Heroes'' chronicles Franz Lidz's childhood, with his father Sidney and four uncles.<ref>, 02.19.91 - ''Baltimore Sun''</ref> Sidney is portrayed as the youngest and sanest. Lidz's four uncles, the Lidz Brothers,<ref>", 09.25.95 - SI Vault</ref> are mostly reminiscent of the raffish ] in their heyday. He had previously written oddball features about two of the uncles in'' Sports Illustrated''.<ref>", 01.25.87 - SI Vault</ref><ref>, 12.20.82 - SI Vault</ref> | ||
| 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> |
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>, 03.04.91 - ''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>, 02.20.91 - ''Los Angeles Times''</ref> '']'' called ''Unstrung Heroes'': "Astonishing, hilarious, angry, poignant, always pointed."<ref>http://www.amazon.com/Ghosty-Men-Brothers-Greatest-Historical/dp/158234311X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1296776567&sr=1-1</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 ] 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>, 09.22.95 - ''Entertainment Weekly''</ref><ref>, 09.1.95 - ''New York'' magazine</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>, 01.10.99 - ''New York Times''</ref> | ||
| === ''Ghosty Men'' === | === ''Ghosty Men'' === | ||
| ''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 tale of the Collyer brothers, the hermit hoarders of ].<ref> |
''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 tale of the Collyer brothers, the hermit hoarders of ].<ref>, 10.26.03 - ''New York Times''</ref> The book also chronicles the parallel life of Arthur Lidz, the hermit uncle of ''Unstrung Heroes,'' who grew up near the Collyer mansion. | ||
| '']'' 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+... |
'']'' 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>", 01.04.04 - ''Washington Post''</ref> Adam Mansbach of the '']'' wrote: "Franz Lidz brings thorough research and a deft, journalistic touch to this brief, readable tale, does an elegant job of situating the famously odd brothers' lives within the context of a changing New York City."<ref>, 10.12.03 - ''San Francisco Chronicle''</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."<ref>http://milo.com/ghosty-men-the-strange-but-true-story-of-the-collyer-brothers-new-yorks-greatest-hoarders-an-urban-historical-by-franz-lidz</ref> | ||
| === ''Fairway to Hell'' === | === ''Fairway to Hell'' === | ||
| Line 49: | Line 49: | ||
| ''Fairway to Hell'' is a 2008 memoir in which Lidz chronicles his adventures on golf courses with people 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 pounds are penalized), and a pitch-and-putt tournament at a ] ].<ref></ref> | ''Fairway to Hell'' is a 2008 memoir in which Lidz chronicles his adventures on golf courses with people 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 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''."<ref>http://onlyagame.wbur.org/2008/05/30/fairway-to-hell</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''."<ref>"", 05.30.08 - Only A Game</ref> | ||
| == Collaborations == | == Collaborations == | ||
| Line 57: | Line 57: | ||
| == 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 married his wife when he was still a ], a day after her high school graduation.<ref>http://www.oprah.com/relationships/Finding-the-One-By-Chance</ref> His daughters Gogo and Daisy Daisy (Didi)<ref></ref> were named after the protagonists in '']''. | 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> 11.21.04 ''Los Angeles Times''</ref><ref>, 06.23.03 - SI Vault</ref> and an assortment of pets. Lidz married his wife when he was still a ], a day after her high school graduation.<ref>", February, 2009 - ''O, The Oprah Magazine''</ref> His daughters Gogo and Daisy Daisy (Didi)<ref>, 07.25.10 - ''New York Times''</ref> were named after the protagonists in '']''. | ||
| 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> |
Lidz has been a commentator for ] on NPR,<ref>; 11.19.98 - ''The Tuscaloosa News''</ref> and a guest film critic on ]'s syndicated TV show.<ref>, 04.16.00 - ''New York Times''</ref> He has also appeared on ]'s show. | ||
| == References == | == References == | ||
Revision as of 15:31, 15 February 2011
| Franz Lidz | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Occupation | Journalist, memoirist |
| Notable works | Unstrung Heroes (1991) Ghosty Men (2003) Fairway To Hell (2008) |
| Spouse | Maggie Lidz (1976-present) |
| Children | Gogo, Daisy Daisy |
Franz Lidz (born September 24, 1951) is an American writer and journalist.
He was a senior writer at Sports Illustrated, a contributing editor at Conde Nast Portfolio, and is a correspondent for GQ, Sports Illustrated, Men's Journal, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Observer, AARP the Magazine, Slate and has written for the New York Times since 1983, on travel, TV, film and theater.
His writing includes the childhood memoir Unstrung Heroes, the urban history Ghosty Men: The Strange But True Story of the Collyer Brothers and the golf memoir Fairway To Hell.
Early life
Lidz was born in Manhattan, to Sidney, an electronics engineer who designed the first transistorized portable tape recorder (the Steelman Transitape). His father gave him early his exposure to authors like Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter and Eugene Ionesco.
At age nine, Lidz moved to the Philadelphia suburbs. Lidz attended high school in Cheltenham and later college at Antioch College, where he was a theater major.
Career
Lidz chose journalism because he wanted a career that wouldn't go out of style. Lidz began as one of three novice reporters at the weekly Sanford Star, where he wrote a column and covered police and fire beats, among other things. He also banked occasional finders' fees from the National Enquirer 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 Baltimore.
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. In August that year, he was made the managing editor of the magazine.
Lidz's career highlights include a road trip in search of sports on the equator; a lengthy meditation on Don King's hair, and a look inside the mind games at the 1987 world chess championship between Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov in Seville, Spain'. His essay on George Steinbrenner and the New York Yankees' line of succession was called the "scoop of the year" in the 2008 Houghton-Mifflin collection The Best American Sports Writing.
Notable works
Unstrung Heroes
Unstrung Heroes chronicles Franz Lidz's childhood, with his father Sidney and four uncles. Sidney is portrayed as the youngest and sanest. Lidz's four uncles, the Lidz Brothers, are mostly reminiscent of the raffish Ritz Brothers in their heyday. He had previously written oddball features 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 starring John Turturro and Andie MacDowell as Sidney and Selma Lidz, and directed by Diane Keaton. The setting was switched from New York to Southern California, 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. 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 tale of the Collyer brothers, the hermit hoarders of Harlem. The book also chronicles the parallel life of Arthur Lidz, the hermit uncle of Unstrung Heroes, who grew up near the Collyer mansion.
Washington Post 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." Adam Mansbach of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote: "Franz Lidz brings thorough research and a deft, journalistic touch to this brief, readable tale, does an elegant job of situating the famously odd brothers' lives within the context of a changing New York City." Luc Sante, 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."
Fairway to Hell
Fairway to Hell is a 2008 memoir in which Lidz chronicles his adventures on golf courses with people like Bill Murray and Judas Priest, and even a New England farmer who raises llamas as caddies. The book includes reports from places like Zambia, where 15 holes in a course are guarded by live crocodiles, the Fattie Open (where those weighing under 250 pounds are penalized), and a pitch-and-putt tournament at a Florida nudist colony.
On the National Public Radio show Only A Game, host Bill Littlefield 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."
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.
Personal life
Lidz lives on a six-acre farm in Pennsylvania's Brandywine Valley with his wife Maggie (an author and historian at the Winterthur Museum in Delaware), two daughters and an assortment of pets. Lidz married his wife when he was still a grad student, a day after her high school graduation. His daughters Gogo and Daisy Daisy (Didi) were named after the protagonists in Waiting for Godot.
Lidz has been a commentator for Morning Edition on NPR, and a guest film critic on Roger Ebert's syndicated TV show. He has also appeared on David Letterman's show.
References
- "He bristles at attention, whether it's for his bushy beard", 08.23.10 - SI Vault.
- "At the Kentucky Derby, Running for Roses, Not Speed Records", Wall Street Journal
- "The Virtuoso of the Canorama: Gil Rogin Ran SI at Its Peak, But His Fiction Might Make Him Immortal" The New York Observer.
- The tiny town that's home to every sport you've never heard of., Slate Magazine
- Sidney Lidz - Obituary, New York Times.
- "Beginning at the Ending at the Bates Motel", New York Times.
- "Letter From The Publisher" - 03.09.87 - SI Vault
- ^ "Letter from the Publisher" 05.10.82 - SI Vault.
- ^ "Letter From The Publisher" - 03.26.84 - SI Vault Cite error: The named reference "autogenerated3" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- "Punching the Clock: City Paper: The First Decade", Baltimore City Paper.
- "The Sport of Drunken Hairy Scots", 05.07.08 - Philadelphia Inquirer
- "Like Sports Everywhere, the Games Played on the Equator", 02.20.98 - SI Vault
- "From Hair To Eternity", 12.10.90 - SI Vault
- "Duel of Two Minds, 12.07.87 - SI Vault
- Baseball After The Boss, 08.02.07 Conde Nast Portfolio
- Lidz weaves a tale of family, life on fringes, 02.19.91 - Baltimore Sun
- From The Publisher", 09.25.95 - SI Vault
- My Uncle, The Collector: A Hobbyist On A Shoestring", 01.25.87 - SI Vault
- Uncle Harry Never Lost A Fight But He Never Really Fought One, Either, 12.20.82 - SI Vault
- Books of The Times; Reality Was Relative and the Relatives Were Nuts, 03.04.91 - New York Times
- The Unlikely Heroics of Unstrung Heroes, 02.20.91 - Los Angeles Times
- http://www.amazon.com/Ghosty-Men-Brothers-Greatest-Historical/dp/158234311X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1296776567&sr=1-1
- In The Name Of The Father, 09.22.95 - Entertainment Weekly
- Undone Heroes, 09.1.95 - New York magazine
- FILM; In a Higher State of Being (That Is, Dying), 01.10.99 - New York Times
- The Paper Chase, 10.26.03 - New York Times
- "If Anything Should Inspire..., 01.04.04 - Washington Post
- Review In Brief, 10.12.03 - San Francisco Chronicle
- http://milo.com/ghosty-men-the-strange-but-true-story-of-the-collyer-brothers-new-yorks-greatest-hoarders-an-urban-historical-by-franz-lidz
- ESPN Books - Fairway to Hell - Franz Lidz - 978-1-933-06043-9
- "", 05.30.08 - Only A Game
- Where the wild things are - inside the tent 11.21.04 Los Angeles Times
- Introducing Miss Daisy, 06.23.03 - SI Vault
- "Meeting Maggie, February, 2009 - O, The Oprah Magazine
- Daisy Lidz, Thor Ritz, 07.25.10 - New York Times
- ; 11.19.98 - The Tuscaloosa News
- A Shot at Thumb-Wrestling With Roger, 04.16.00 - New York Times
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
- New York Times Resource search
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