Background
Offit, Sidney was born on October 13, 1928 in Baltimore. Son of Barney and Lillian (Cohen) Offit.
(One dog, one turtle, one rabbit and one frog become invis...)
One dog, one turtle, one rabbit and one frog become invisible right out there in the middle of the baseball field during the most important game of the season. Joe is the boy who wants to help his great, aging idol, Soupbone McDexter. Christopher provides the means with a chemistry set. An ingenious story, fast paced and witty, certain to provide light and happy reading for young readers.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007E15HG/?tag=2022091-20
(A warm and sympathetic awareness of the peculiarly intens...)
A warm and sympathetic awareness of the peculiarly intense living that goes on behind the facade of the world-within-a-world of the hotel business.--New York Herald Tribune
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007E3P24/?tag=2022091-20
(Homer Fink could speak Latin and Greek or chart the orbit...)
Homer Fink could speak Latin and Greek or chart the orbit of the planet Jupiter, but when it came to tying his shoelaces or knotting his tie Homer was helpless. The Adventures of Homer Fink is a story of youth's first awareness of power and philosophy and love. It is peopled with characters as real as your next door neighbors and yet uniquely extraordinary. Above all this is a tale full of humor and affection and the wonder of growing up.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1583483802/?tag=2022091-20
( “Sidney Offit has devised a marvelous mirror of his uni...)
“Sidney Offit has devised a marvelous mirror of his unique personality as well as a one of a kind tour of the New York literary world in the last half century. Anyone even faintly interested in books will find it impossible to put down.”---Thomas Fleming, bestselling author of Liberty! The American Revolution 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. 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. Praise for Sidney Offit's "Friends, Writers, and Other Countrymen": “It is possible that Sidney Offit knows more famous and interesting people than anyone else on earth, and what is more, has a funny and shrewdly observed story about each of them.... He is truly 20th Century New York City’s answer to Samuel Pepys.”---Michael Korda, author of Charmed Lives and Ike “Sidney Offit was the man. He was there.... For more than a half century Offit has interacted with one big cheese after another. And now he recounts to our utter glee, what he saw, did, and heard. Sid pushes the reader---already satiated---to the greedy expectation after each chapter of: who’s next?”--- Barry Beckham, author of My Main Mother “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, 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. 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, PEN, American Center. “More than a memoir about the writers life, this is a book about how at their best writers speak and dream for us all.”---Marita Golden author of After “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 “Offit has been as important to American arts and letters as any of those to whom he characteristically defers. He is our wise and cheerful host. And the nation’s writers would be lost without him.”---Roger Rosenblatt, author of Lapham Rising and Beet “There’s a rumor that if you wake Sidney in the middle of the night, he sticks out his hand and says, “Nice to meet you!” In this warm, funny book, Sidney’s gregarious spirit goes rollicking through the pages as he introduces the reader to one fascinating character after another.”---James Stevenson, author, cartoonist, originator of Lost and Found New York
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312375220/?tag=2022091-20
Offit, Sidney was born on October 13, 1928 in Baltimore. Son of Barney and Lillian (Cohen) Offit.
Bachelor, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 1950. Doctor of Humane Letters (honorary), Long Island University, 1999.
Editorial staff, Mercury Publs., New York City, 1952-1953;
Editorial staff, Macfadden Publs., New York City, 1953-1954;
contributing editor, Baseball magazine, Washington, 1955-1958;
faculty, New York University, since 1964;
Adjunct Professor creative writing, New York University, since 1977;
associate editor, Intellectual Digest, 1970-1972;
senior editor, Intellectual Digest, 1972-1974. Lecturer creative writing New School Social Research, since 1965. Curator George Polk Awards for Journalism, since 1977.
Member of national board National Book Committee, 1973-1975. Commentator Channel 5 television, New York City, 1975-1985, Channel 11 television, 1992.
(Homer Fink could speak Latin and Greek or chart the orbit...)
( Homer Fink could speak Latin and Greek or chart the orb...)
(One dog, one turtle, one rabbit and one frog become invis...)
( “Sidney Offit has devised a marvelous mirror of his uni...)
(A warm and sympathetic awareness of the peculiarly intens...)
(A warm and sympathetic awareness of the peculiarly intens...)
(A seventeen-year-old boy finds himself falling in love wi...)
(ex-library, front cover's been taped and both front and b...)
Selection committee District School Board, New York City, 1968. Executive board Lexington Democratic Club, 1957-1960, New York Democratic County Committee, since 1966. Chairman 19th Precinct Community Council New York City, 1964-1980.
Member Tudor and Stuart Club, Authors Guild Foundation (president since 1993), Authors Guild (council 1970-1977, 79—, vice president 1993-1995), Authors League (national council since 1976), Authors League Fund (vice president since 1998, acting president 2004-2005), American Center Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists and Novelists association (executive committee 1969, 2003-2009, vice president 1970-1974, international delegate 1971-1972, 74), Club Century Association(New York City), Coffee House Club (New York City).
Married Avodah Crindell Komito, August 8, 1952. Children: Kenneth, Michael Robert.