Members' Salon
ASJA Members Discuss Their Lives as Writers
Norman Lobsenz

When did you know you were a writer?

It seems I always knew, because I started writing poems when I was six years old, and by the time I was 10, even tried to sell one to a local paper. At 10, I got a birthday present— Boys Book of Journalism—and when I graduated from elementary school, an aunt gave me a Smith-Corona manual. I taught myself to type by writing a science-fiction novel about people on Venus, and I regret that I never kept that manuscript.

Was there a particular moment when you know you could make it as a freelancer?

It was 65 years ago, yet I recall it vividly. Driving out west, I discovered the Idaho Primitive Area, thousands of square miles of wilderness in that state. I wrote a 2,500-word piece and sent it on spec to This Week, a leading Sunday supplement of that era. A month later, my first stop in San Francisco was the post office. There was a letter from the magazine, and the first few words: "We are pleased to enclose..." That, along with a check for $1500, told me "Yes! I can do this !"

Most memorable story?

Hard to choose out of over 1,000 assignments, but it has to be the time I went to Iran to interview Farah Diba, the young bride of the Shah. When I landed in Tehran, three security guards said I did not need to go through immigration or customs, and took me to a hotel, where I was told to wait until my "minder" met me. After a week, during which he showed me the city sights, the queen received me in the royal palace, where I was served tea in a gold cup and cookies on gold plates while we talked for an hour with the help of an interpreter. The article ran in Good Housekeeping as "The Queen Who Must Have a Son."

Career high point?

Since I specialized in relationship articles, I came to know many counselors and therapists both professionally and personally. At one conference, I was made a "diplomat" of the American Association for Marital and Family Therapy— the only writer ever to be given that honor. It meant that the members trusted what I wrote.

Career low point?

Got a contract for a book with a major publishing house, worked on it for six months, and had it rejected—with no reason given for the rejection.

Oddest person encountered while reporting?

I can give you two. One was Buckskin Billy, an authentic hermit who holed up for years in that Idaho Primitive area. When he went into town twice a year to buy food he couldn't grow or hunt, Billy left this note on his cabin door: "Some of everything here has been poisoned."

Then there was J. Otis Swift, who wrote a weekly "nature" column for the old New York Herald-Tribune. Swift led weekly walks in suburban areas, walking backwards so his hiking group could hear him better. Swift estimated he had walked backward for 150,000 miles.

Was there a book that changed your life?

When I was 18, I read a novel, The Anointed, by Clyde Brion Davis. The young hero, bored by his ordinary life, risked everything to find knowledge and adventure beyond what he called the "Black Ocean." I too feared an "ordinary life," and the book showed me it was OK to take risks. And what could be more risky than being a fulltime freelance writer ?

What does it mean to you to be a writer?

That I could always learn new facts and insights from the people I interviewed and pass them on to my readers, and that I thus had a responsibility to honor the truth and accuracy of my reporting. Secondly, that being constantly curious about the world keeps a person mentally alive.

What's sitting in a drawer?

Well, since I stopped writing for a living five years ago, there is nothing in the drawer. But I do have a four-drawer file cabinet that holds the original manuscript and tearsheet (or galley proofs) of everything I've written and sold. Which certainly presents a problem for my sons: "What do we do with dad's stuff ?" Has ASJA considered starting a Members' Archive?

What's upcoming writing-wise?

Well, because I'm 91 maybe I should revise my Medical Directive and my will!