Fran Lebowitz

Fran Lebowitz
Lebowitz in 2011
Lebowitz in 2011
BornFrances Ann Lebowitz
(1950-10-27) October 27, 1950 (age 73)
Morristown, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation
  • Author
  • public speaker
  • actor
Notable worksMetropolitan Life
Social Studies
The Fran Lebowitz Reader

Frances Ann Lebowitz (/ˈliːbəwɪts/;[1] born October 27, 1950) is an American author,[2] public speaker,[3][4] and actor.[5] She is known for her sardonic social commentary on American life as filtered through her New York City sensibilities and her association with many prominent figures of the 1970s and 1980s New York art scene, including Andy Warhol, Martin Scorsese, Jerome Robbins, Robert Mapplethorpe, David Wojnarowicz, Candy Darling, and the New York Dolls.[6][7][8][9]

Lebowitz gained fame for her books Metropolitan Life (1978) and Social Studies (1981), which were combined into The Fran Lebowitz Reader in 1994. She has been the subject of two projects directed by Martin Scorsese, the HBO documentary film Public Speaking (2010), and the Netflix docu-series Pretend It's a City (2021).[10]

The New York Times has called Lebowitz a modern-day Dorothy Parker.[11]

  1. ^ "Say How: L". National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled. April 17, 2016. Retrieved June 23, 2021.
  2. ^ Plimpton, George; Linville, James (1993). "A Humorist at Work". The Paris Review. Summer 1993 (127). ISSN 0031-2037. Retrieved January 10, 2021. While working in the local Carvel ice-cream store, she attended an Episcopalian day school until she was thrown out for "non-specific surliness." Certain that she would starve to death following this banishment, Lebowitz skipped college and moved to Manhattan, where she pursued such jobs as taxi driving, belt peddling, apartment cleaning ("with a small specialty in Venetian blinds"), and selling advertising space for Changes magazine.
  3. ^ Detrick, Ben (November 17, 2010). "Infallibility Has Its Upside". The New York Times.
  4. ^ King, Loren (October 6, 2012). "Fran Lebowitiz is coming to town to tell it like it is". Boston.com. Retrieved October 15, 2016.
  5. ^ David, Mark (February 13, 2017). "Fran Lebowitz Buys $3.1 Million, One-Bedroom Condo in New York City". Variety.
  6. ^ Bennett, Bruce (November 23, 2010). "The Vulture Transcript: Fran Lebowitz on Sarah Palin, Keith Richards, Her Side Career as a Law & Order Judge, and Much More". New York.
  7. ^ O'Hagan, Sean (February 7, 2021). "Fran Lebowitz: 'I am really not a contrarian'". The Guardian. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
  8. ^ Bradley Paige, Katherine (May 14, 2018). "Fran Lebowitz Remembers When Everyone Hated Jerome Robbins and Money Had No Currency". Vice. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
  9. ^ Harris, Melissa (Fall 1994). "Close Friend To Both David Wojnarowicz And Peter Hujar, Writer Fran Lebowitz Renders An Intimate Portrait Of Both Artists..." No. 137. Aperture. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
  10. ^ Butler, Sara (April 27, 2022). "Ahead of rare San Diego appearance, Fran Lebowitz chats about writing, Zoom calls and California burritos". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved August 18, 2022.
  11. ^ Collins, Glenn (August 23, 1981). "The sour cream sensibility". The New York Times.