Frances Ann "Fran" Lebowitz (born October 27, 1950) is an American author, public speaker, and occasional actor. Lebowitz is known for her sardonic social commentary on American life as filtered through her New York City sensibilities. Some reviewers have called her a modern-day Dorothy Parker.
Video Fran Lebowitz
Life and career
Lebowitz was born and raised in Morristown, New Jersey. Lebowitz describes her "Jewish identity [as] ethnic or cultural or whatever people call it now. But it's not religious." She has been an atheist since the age of 7.
After being expelled from high school and earning a GED, Lebowitz worked various odd jobs before Andy Warhol hired her as a columnist for Interview, where she wrote a column called "I Cover the Waterfront." This was followed by a stint at Mademoiselle. Her first two books were the essay collections Metropolitan Life (1978) and Social Studies (1981), both collected in The Fran Lebowitz Reader.
In 1995 she wrote Mr. Chas and Lisa Sue Meet the Pandas, a children's book about giant pandas living in New York City who long to move to Paris.
Lebowitz has been known, in part, for Exterior Signs of Wealth, a long-overdue, unfinished novel, purportedly about rich people who want to be artists, and artists who want to be rich. She also made several appearances on Late Night with David Letterman and had a recurring role as Judge Janice Goldberg on the television drama Law & Order from 2001 to 2007.
A heavy smoker, Lebowitz is known for her advocacy of smokers' rights. She is also known for her massive book collection, which includes at least one shelf of soap-carving books, and her refusal to use many technologies, including cell phones and computers.
In September 2007, Lebowitz was named one of the year's most stylish women in Vanity Fair's 68th Annual International Best-Dressed List; she is known for her trademark men's suit jackets and white shirts, cowboy boots, jeans, and tortoiseshell glasses.
On November 17, 2010, Lebowitz returned to The Late Show with David Letterman after a 16-year absence. She discussed her years-long writer's block, which she jokingly referred to as a "writer's blockade." On November 22, 2010, HBO debuted Public Speaking, Martin Scorsese's documentary about her containing interviews and clips from speaking engagements.
Lebowitz's upcoming book, Progress, was first excerpted in Vanity Fair in 2004 and has an October 2017 publication date.
Maps Fran Lebowitz
Books
- Metropolitan Life, Dutton, 1978. ISBN 978-0-525-15562-1
- Social Studies, Random House, 1981. ISBN 978-0-394-51245-7
- The Fran Lebowitz Reader, Vintage Books, 1994, ISBN 978-0-679-76180-8
- Mr. Chas and Lisa Sue Meet the Pandas, Knopf, 1994. ISBN 978-0-679-86052-5
- Progress [Unfinished]
- Exterior Signs of Wealth [Unfinished]
References
External links
- Fran Lebowitz on IMDb
- Index magazine interview
- Interview with Fran Lebowitz
- Black Book interview
- The Onion A.V. Club interview
- PEN 2013 Master/Class with Fran Lebowitz and A. M. Homes
Source of article : Wikipedia
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