I think it was Hunter S. Thompson who said “there’s no credential a writer needs,” and Fran Lebowitz, whose 73rd birthday is today, is a good example. She’s a New York City-based writer and commentator who’s known for her sardonic observations about American life, and if you’d followed her progress as a girl and young woman, you would never have predicted any of it.
Lebowitz was born in New Jersey, pretty close to New York City, into a family that owned a furniture store. She was a terrible student. Instead of paying attention in class she would secretly read whatever she happened to be interested in. She failed algebra six times, and later said she “had no interest in understanding” it. Her parents enrolled her in a private girls’ school to try to improve her grades, but she was expelled for “nonspecific surliness” — she was probably expressing the sort of attitudes she still holds, but adults can get away with much more than kids can. Then she attended Morristown High School, but was suspended for sneaking out of “pep rallies,” the “team spirit” events US schools hold to…well, they just do. Then they expelled her from that school too.
At 18, her long-suffering parents sent her to live with her aunt in northern New York state, but she only stayed six months before moving to New York City. She worked a variety of jobs at first, including driving a taxi (she later bought a taxicab, which she still owns). Then at 21 she got her first writing job, at Interview magazine. From there she moved to Madamoiselle magazine. Her work on interviews and columns introduced her to people in the New York art scene, including photographer Robbert Mapplethorpe and artist Andy Warhol. As an aside, Mapplethorpe gave her some of his photographs, but she just threw them away (Mapplethorpe photos are now pretty valuable).
She published her first book, Metropolitan Life, in 1978 and became a bit of a celebrity because of its success. She began to be invited onto television news and talk shows, where she proved to be pretty popular. Her career as a “television guest” and public speaker continues today, and she’s said “It’s what I wanted my entire life. People asking me my opinion, and people not allowed to interrupt.”
She’s closely identified with New York City, where she still lives, and while she owns over ten thousand books, does not have a cell phone, a computer, or even a typewriter. She describes herself as “resistant to technology.” She’s appeared (sometimes as the subject) in eight documentary films and acted in at least two. She has a long list of television appearances, going back four decades. And her bibliography is pretty extensive, although not lately, because she’s suffered from writer’s block since the late 1990s. Her editor says it’s because of “excessive reverence for the written word.” But she still doesn’t have any credentials.
