With real writer Mark Bittman, food critic for the NY Times – trying to design a TV show – hello…. Food Network? Are you listening?
When I was 2o years old, I dreamed of being a writer.
So I bought my self an Olivetti portable typewriter (these being the days before laptops… or even computers), and I schlepped that thing to Nepal, into the Himalayas, where I ensconsced myself into the Kathmandu Guest House. Now this, I thought, is writing.
Once there, I immediately wrote to Peter Matthiessen.
I had been greatly influenced by Matthiessens’ book, The Snow Leopard, which was part of the reason I had schlepped the Olivetti 12, 000 miles. So as I sat down to write, I wrote to Matthiessen. I wrote him the kind of 20 page, single spaced letter that only a 20 year old would write. I told him how much he had influenced me, how much I wanted to write.. blah, blah, blah. And I sent it off.
A few weeks later, much to my surprise, I got an answer from Matthiessen. (more…)
