I met my best
friend, Larry Grobel, in Accra, Ghana. I was driving around West Africa,
shooting photographs for three children’s books. He, a 22-year-old Peace Corps
volunteer, was teaching writing and journalism at the Institute of
Journalism in Accra.
We never lost
touch over the ensuing 43 years. Soon after his three years
in Ghana, Larry moved from New York to Los Angeles, and , to my ever-growing
amazement, his writing career took flight, interviewing, for Playboy and other first-rate magazines,
Hollywood's most famous stars and directors as well as many
celebrated American writers.
Many of those
interviews grew into books—on John Huston; Marlon
Brando (he invited Larry to his island in Tahiti for
two weeks); Al Pacino, with whom he started a long friendship;
Truman Capote; James A. Michener; and way too many others to mention here.
They’re now all books.
Those 11
books also include novels, satire, and poetry. They are now all available at
modestly-priced ebooks at Amazon.com.
I read nearly all of them as they appeared in my mail box, and I
promise you they’ll amaze you as much as he and his books have amazed
me.
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