Social Studies (book)

Last updated
Social Studies
Author Fran Lebowitz
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Essays
Publisher Random House
Publication date
1981
Media type Print
Pages147

Social Studies is a 1981 bestselling collection of comedic essays by writer Fran Lebowitz. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

To mark publication of Social Studies, Fran Lebowitz was interviewed by filmmaker John Waters about the collection, her stance on modern urbanity, and the life of a writer, published in the magazine Interview in September 1981. This long-form, wide-ranging, and humorous exchange was republished online in March 2023. [6]

Social Studies later was re-released in a 1994 compilation entitled The Fran Lebowitz Reader along with Lebowitz's other bestseller Metropolitan Life . [7]

In her signature fashion, Lebowitz records her wry observations, tastes, preferences, and aesthetic values within the essays of this second collection of her stories and opinion pieces. One of the essays in Social Studies, for example, “Pointers for Pets”, recommends 19th-century American cabinetmaker Duncan Phyfe’s artistry, remarking: “Georgian silver and Duncan Phyfe sofas make wonderful companions, as do all alcoholic beverages and out-of-season fruits.” (p.55)

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Alan McPherson</span> American essayist and short-story writer

James Alan McPherson was an American essayist and short-story writer. He was the first African-American writer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and was included among the first group of artists who received a MacArthur Fellowship. At the time of his death, McPherson was a professor emeritus of fiction at the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Foster Wallace</span> American writer (1962–2008)

David Foster Wallace was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and university professor of English and creative writing. Wallace is widely known for his 1996 novel Infinite Jest, which Time magazine cited as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. His posthumous novel, The Pale King (2011), was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2012. The Los Angeles Times's David Ulin called Wallace "one of the most influential and innovative writers of the last twenty years".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joan Didion</span> American writer (1934–2021)

Joan Didion was an American writer. She is considered one of the pioneers of New Journalism along with Gay Talese, Hunter S. Thompson, and Tom Wolfe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russell Banks</span> American writer of fiction and poetry (1940–2023)

Russell Earl Banks was an American writer of fiction and poetry. His novels are known for "detailed accounts of domestic strife and the daily struggles of ordinary often-marginalized characters". His stories usually revolve around his own childhood experiences, and often reflect "moral themes and personal relationships".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duncan Phyfe</span> American cabinetmaker

Duncan Phyfe was one of nineteenth-century America's leading cabinetmakers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Waters</span> American filmmaker, actor, comedian, writer, and artist (born 1946)

John Samuel Waters Jr. is an American filmmaker, writer, actor, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films, including Multiple Maniacs (1970), Pink Flamingos (1972) and Female Trouble (1974). He wrote and directed the comedy film Hairspray (1988), which became an international success and was later adapted into a hit Broadway musical and a 2007 musical film. He has written and directed other films, including Polyester (1981), Cry-Baby (1990), Serial Mom (1994), Pecker (1998), and Cecil B. Demented (2000). His films contain elements of post-modern comedy and surrealism. Waters often worked with actor and drag queen Divine and his regular cast of the Dreamlanders.

<i>The Paris Review</i> New York-based English-language literary magazine

The Paris Review is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, The Paris Review published works by Jack Kerouac, Philip Larkin, V. S. Naipaul, Philip Roth, Terry Southern, Adrienne Rich, Italo Calvino, Samuel Beckett, Nadine Gordimer, Jean Genet, and Robert Bly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fran Lebowitz</span> American author and public speaker

Frances Ann Lebowitz is an American author, public speaker, and occasional actor. She is known for her sardonic social commentary on American life as filtered through her New York City sensibilities and her association with many prominent figures of the 1970s and 1980s New York art scene, including Andy Warhol, Martin Scorsese, Jerome Robbins, Robert Mapplethorpe, David Wojnarowicz, Candy Darling, and the New York Dolls. The New York Times has called her a modern-day Dorothy Parker. Lebowitz gained fame for her books Metropolitan Life (1978) and Social Studies (1981), which were combined into The Fran Lebowitz Reader in 1994. She has been the subject of two projects directed by Martin Scorsese, the HBO documentary film Public Speaking (2010), and the Netflix docu-series Pretend It's a City (2021).

Brendan Gill was an American journalist. He wrote for The New Yorker for more than 60 years. Gill also contributed film criticism for Film Comment, wrote about design and architecture for Architectural Digest and wrote fifteen books, including a popular book about his time at the New Yorker magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phillip Lopate</span> American novelist

Phillip Lopate is an American film critic, essayist, fiction writer, poet, and teacher. He is the younger brother of radio host Leonard Lopate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lynne Tillman</span> American novelist

Lynne Tillman is a novelist, short story writer, and cultural critic. She is currently Professor/Writer-in-Residence in the Department of English at the University at Albany and teaches at the School of Visual Arts' Art Criticism and Writing MFA Program. Tillman is the author of six novels, five collections of short stories, two collection of essays, and two other nonfiction books. She writes a bi-monthly column "In These Intemperate Times" for Frieze Art Magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diana Trilling</span> American literary critic and author

Diana Trilling was an American literary critic and author, one of a group of left-wing writers known as the New York Intellectuals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewelle Gomez</span> American author, poet, critic and playwright (born 1948)

Jewelle Lydia Gomez is an American author, poet, critic and playwright. She lived in New York City for 22 years, working in public television, theater, as well as philanthropy, before relocating to the West Coast. Her writing—fiction, poetry, essays and cultural criticism—has appeared in a wide variety of outlets, both feminist and mainstream. Her work centers on women's experiences, particularly those of LGBTQ women of color. She has been interviewed for several documentaries focused on LGBT rights and culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Porochista Khakpour</span> American writer

Porochista Khakpour is an Iranian American novelist, essayist, and journalist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carol Sklenicka</span>

Carol Sklenicka is an American biographer and literary scholar known for her authoritative, full-scale biographies of two important figures in late twentieth-century American literature: acclaimed short story masters Raymond Carver and Alice Adams.

<i>Public Speaking</i> (film) 2010 film directed by Martin Scorsese

Public Speaking is a 2010 documentary film directed and produced by Martin Scorsese, about the American author Fran Lebowitz.

<i>Metropolitan Life</i> (book) Book by Fran Lebowitz

Metropolitan Life is a 1978 bestselling collection of comedic essays and the debut book by writer Fran Lebowitz.

The Fran Lebowitz Reader is a 1994 collection of comedic essays by writer Fran Lebowitz.

Pretend It's a City is a 2021 American documentary series directed by Martin Scorsese featuring interviews and conversations between Scorsese and Fran Lebowitz. The series was released on January 8, 2021, on Netflix.

Naomi Gordon Lebowitz is a literary philosopher, author, critic, and scholar of American, English, Scandinavian, and continental European literature, as well as a translator of Danish fiction.

References

  1. Elle.com
  2. Collins, Glenn (August 23, 1981). "THE SOUR CREAM SENSIBILITY". The New York Times .
  3. The Awl
  4. Slate
  5. Bellafante, Ginia (November 21, 2010). "Opinions You Won't Find on Twitter: Fran Lebowitz Talks". The New York Times .
  6. Nevins, Jake (2023-03-23). "A Taste of Paradis: Fran Lebowitz, in Conversation with John Waters". Interview Magazine. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  7. Callahan, Dan (February 21, 2011). "Fran Lebowitz in Public Speaking". Slant Magazine .