Recommended Reading

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.

<http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_15?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=lawrence+grobel&sprefix=Lawrence+Grobel%2Caps%2C350 >

     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.

Saying Good-bye for a While

I must say good-bye for a while. I’ll be flying to Colombia in the next two days to work on a new magazine story. I lived in that country for 23 years--self-published nine photo books on it, and explored its every corner. It can be dangerous sometimes, but always rewarding beyond expectations.

Colombia is one of the world’s most varied and beautiful countries, in its humanity as well as in its geography. However, the country’s best scenery, that which people have altered little, is generally difficult of access. Parts of Colombia are in the hands of a criminal guerilla, and delinquents stalk city streets.