elisa_rolle (elisa_rolle) wrote,
elisa_rolle
elisa_rolle

David Sedaris (born December 26, 1956)

David Raymond Sedaris (born December 26, 1956) is an American humorist, comedian, author and radio contributor nominated for a Grammy Award.

Sedaris has been described as 'the rock star of writers'. He was publicly recognized in 1992 when National Public Radio broadcast his essay "SantaLand Diaries". He published his first collection of essays and short stories, Barrel Fever, in 1994. His next five essay collections, Naked (1997), Holidays on Ice (1997), Me Talk Pretty One Day (2000), Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim (2004), and When You Are Engulfed in Flames (2008), became New York Times Best Sellers. In 2010, he released a collection of anthropomorphic stories, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary.

By 2008 his books had sold seven million copies. Much of Sedaris's humor is autobiographical and self-deprecating, and often concerns his family life, his middle-class upbringing in the suburbs of Raleigh, North Carolina, Greek heritage, jobs, education, drug use, obsessive behaviors and his life in France, London and the South Downs.

Sedaris was born in Binghamton, New York, to Lou and Sharon (née Leonard) Sedaris and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. He is of Greek descent. His mother was Protestant and his father was Greek Orthodox.


David Sedaris is an American author. He lives in France with his longtime partner Hugh Hamrick, a painter, set designer, and theater director, who has been mentioned in a number of Sedaris' stories. Sedaris describes them as the "sort of couple who wouldn't get married." The couple divide their time between a Left Bank apartment in Paris, a house in Normandy, and a flat in London's Kensington neighborhood. Sedaris explains the attraction simply: he needed a ladder and Hamrick had one.

Sedaris was raised in a suburb of Raleigh, North Carolina. He is the second child of six born to Sharon and Lou, an IBM engineer. His siblings, from oldest to youngest, are Lisa, Gretchen, Amy, Tiffany, and Paul (The Rooster). In his teens and twenties, he dabbled in visual and performance art. His lack of success is described in several of his essays. After graduating from Jesse O. Sanderson High School in Raleigh, Sedaris briefly attended Western Carolina University before transferring to and dropping out of Kent State University in 1977. He moved to Chicago, Illinois, in 1983, graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1987. (He did not attend Princeton University, although he spoke fondly of doing so in "What I Learned", a comic baccalaureate address delivered at Princeton in June 2006.)

Sedaris lives in France with his longtime partner Hugh Hamrick, a painter, set designer, and theater director, who has been mentioned in a number of Sedaris' stories. Sedaris describes them as the "sort of couple who wouldn't get married." The couple divide their time between a Left Bank apartment in Paris, a house in Normandy, and a flat in London's Kensington neighborhood.

Sedaris's life turned around in 1990 when he met Hugh Hamrick, who soon became his lover. Sedaris explains the attraction simply: he needed a ladder and Hamrick had one.

When asked about coming out to his family, Sedaris says he never really had a coming out moment; he just referred casually to "the guy I'm seeing." His parents did a double-take, then dropped it. "We're not very direct people," Sedaris explains. "My dad, he's a product of his generation. For him to have become as accepting as he has is really something. For me to expect more would be greedy."

Sedaris is also a playwright, having written with his sister, actress Amy Sedaris, several plays under the name "The Talent Family". These include Stump the Host (1993), Stitches (1994), The Little Frieda Mysteries (1997), All were produced and presented by Meryl Vladimer when she was the artistic director of "the CLUB" at La MaMa, E.T.C. and The Book of Liz (2002) produced by Ania A. Shapiro. Sedaris also co-authored Incident at Cobbler's Knob, which was presented and produced by David Rockwell at the Lincoln Center Festival. Sets for those performances were designed by Sedaris's longtime partner, Hugh Hamrick, who also directed two of them, The Book of Liz and Incident at Cobbler's Knob. Sedaris and his sister Amy shared "The Talent Family" credit on the latter's short-lived sketch comedy show Exit 57 while David was a contributing writer.

Me Talk Pretty One Day (2001) is included in my Best XXI century Gay Novels (2000-2009).

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Sedaris

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Back Bay Books (June 5, 2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0316776963
ISBN-13: 978-0316776967
Amazon: Me Talk Pretty One Day
Amazon Kindle: Me Talk Pretty One Day

A recent transplant to Paris, humorist David Sedaris, bestselling author of "Naked", presents a collection of his strongest work yet, including the title story about his hilarious attempt to learn French. A number one national bestseller now in paperback.

More Spotlights at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Lists/Gay Novels


This journal is friends only. This entry was originally posted at http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/3402866.html. If you are not friends on this journal, Please comment there using OpenID.
Tags: author: david sedaris, in the spotlight
Subscribe

  • Post a new comment

    Error

    Comments allowed for friends only

    Anonymous comments are disabled in this journal

    default userpic

    Your reply will be screened

    Your IP address will be recorded 

  • 0 comments