Join journalist/author Robert Lipsyte and renowned satirist Jules Feiffer for “Friends in Conversation” at the Friday Night Dialogues on July 29.
[Editor’s note: This program has been postponed from Friday, July 15 to Friday, July 29 at 7 PM]
Lipsyte and Feiffer last presented at the library’s annual book and author luncheon at The Pridwin Hotel in 2017, shortly after Feiffer took up residence on Shelter Island, where Lipsyte has long been known by his Shelter Island Reporter moniker, “The Codger.”
The program begins at the Shelter Island Public library on Friday, July 29, at 7 PM. They’ll converse about Feiffer’s life and work.
“However, the conversation will probably veer off into things going on in the world,” the library says on its website. “No matter the topic, the conversation is sure to be engaging.”
About Jules Feiffer
Born in The Bronx in 1929, Feiffer got his first job as a cartoonist in 1946 as an assistant to his idol, Will Eisner, creator of The Spirit comic book. An early strip by Feiffer called “Clifford” appeared in the back section of The Spirit.
After a stint in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he worked for commercial art jobs, cartooning all the while. Among his early projects was “Munro,” a satire about a little boy who is mistakenly drafted into the army and the authorities’ refusal to admit they’ve made a mistake.
Although he found it well-received, publishers weren’t interested in backing an unknown. So in 1956, he offered to do a weekly strip — “Sick, Sick, Sick” — for The Village Voice for free to make a name for himself. That plan was almost immediately successful.
Feiffer went on to write more than 35 books, plays, and screenplays — too numerous to detail here.
One of America’s most widely-read satirists, he has won numerous awards and accolades, including George Polk Award (1961), Academy Award for animated short for “Munro” (1961), an Obie for his play “Little Murders” (1969), an Outer Critics Circle award for his play “The White House Murder Case” (1970), and a Pulitzer Prize for his cartoons in The Village Voice (1986).
Feiffer was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1995; inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2004; received the National Cartoonists Society’s Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004; named a Creativity Foundation Laureate in 2006; and received a lifetime achievement award from the Writers Guild of America in 2010.
About Robert Lipsyte
Shelter Islanders know Lipsyte as “The Codger,” the grumpy columnist persona who grouses about the goings-on around the Island. He is also an award-winning journalist and author specializing in Young Adult fiction.
Also a New York City native, Lipsyte was born in Queens in 1938, where his father was a school principal and his mother was a teacher. While he played classic street games like stickball, Lipsyte has said he was a “fat kid” who devoted most of his free time to reading in the library.
Fresh from Columbia University, at age 19, Lipsyte says he answered a New York Times ad for an editorial assistant. By age 21, he was working for the Times as a sports writer. Then, in 1964, the paper sent him to Miami to cover the Sonny Liston and Cassius Clay heavyweight championship fight.
Clay — who had not yet changed his name to Muhammed Ali — upended expectations and won when Liston gave up in the 7th round. For Lipsyte, the fight not only raised his sports journalism profile but also launched him as a novelist. A publisher who enjoyed reading Lipsyte’s boxing coverage inquired if he’d consider writing a novel.
Since then, Lipsyte has written a dozen Young Adult novels, nine nonfiction books for adults, and numerous YA nonfiction works, short stories, and essays for eductors.
In the 1980s, Lipsyte hosted WNET’s public service program, “The 11th Hour,” for which he won an Emmy. His other awards include multiple Dutton Best Sports Stories awards; the Mike Berger Award, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, 1966 and 1996; Wel-Met Children’s Book Award, 1967; New York Times outstanding children’s book of the year citation, 1977; American Library Association best young adult book citation, 1977; and New Jersey Author citation, 1978.
Friday Night Dialogues
Like all library programs, Friday Night Dialogues is free, but donations are gratefully accepted.
The library encourages but does not require registration. To sign up, use the online calendar or call 631-749-0042.
In the interim: Friday, July 22, Peter Lighte on “The Old Horse Knows the Way”
