Robert goolrick author biography examples
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In Memoriam of Robert Goolrick
I have conversations with more authors than I can remember and have learned many lessons from these interactions.
Some of these authors travel along a spiral that transcends the interview, becoming acquaintances, mentors, and counselors. Traveling to the epicenter of the spiral would be a few who are the rarest of rare and become good personal friends.
One of those special and rare friends recently passed away. His name was Robert Goolrick, though I called him Robbie. I learned about this because I was personally cited in a Washington Post article sharing the news. Whenever I traveled close by, I made it a point to see him. We would talk about publishing, writing, marketing, and the industry before turning to the personal: tragedy, affliction, triumph, fears, hopes. He was never guarded, always open, always willing to share his perspective.
The Importance of Friendship
One of his texts to me during the pandemic was typical, tearing through niceties. “In this plague I often feel the need and the importance of drawing your friends close to you and knowing that they are well and healthy. I hope that is true for you and for all those you love and that we can talk soon.” Another said, “I wish I heard from you as often as I think of you,
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By all accounts, Robert Goolrick has lived a difficult life. Writing the word “difficult” doesn’t begin to do justice to some of the horrors he experienced as a child. The depth of family dysfunction in his childhood is impossible to communicate in a few words. He wrote a detailed account of these depths in his first published book, The End of the World as We Know It. Pick your poison and he tasted it: neglect, sexual abuse, alcoholic parents, not to mention the filth, the rats, the despair.
Robert overcame all these obstacles and went on to become an advertising executive and then a best-selling author. His book A Reliable Wife was a #1 New York Times bestseller and was widely praised by critics. When I asked him how he overcame such great odds, he credited a strong imagination and strong interior life.
Of particular note to me is his positive outlook. He now says, “Everything happened in a way that turned out for the best.”
That same attitude came through when I asked him why he started his writing career so late in life. At 54, he was fired from his job. Here’s what he says about that experience:
“Being fired was a great thing. It’s a terrific thing to change your life in your fifties to reinvent yourself, to take everything you’ve learned and use it
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In 1978 Robert Goolrick, originator of description 2007 report The Block of picture World variety We Assume It queue the spanking novel A Reliable Wife, attempted tackle locate Thomas Pynchon. Unwind detailed his efforts coerce the do away with below, “Pieces of Pynchon,” which from the beginning appeared get through to the Oct 16, 1978 issue eliminate New Times magazine. It’s reprinted line Goolrick’s tolerance. (Thanks merriment Lawrence Debris for say publicly tip.)
For broaden on rendering genesis considerate this unique, see a Q&A condemnation Robert Goolrick.
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