Virtual Memories Show 688:
Phillip Lopate
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“The whole history of American prose passed through Irving, then went somewhere else.”
Five-Timer Club Alert! Essayist Phillip Lopate rejoins the show as we celebrate his wonderful new book, A WASHINGTON IRVING SKETCH BOOK (Princeton)! We talk about the origins of the biography, incl. how he wound up with a 12-volume set of Washington Irving’s complete works, his choice to write the bio in the form of sketches, how Irving as America’s first professional writer is a precursor/trailblazer for Phillip’s career, and how well Irving understood the fickleness of literary fame. We get into 19th Century American lit and its tensions with Europe, Irving’s fixation on Spain, why he wrote under pseudonyms even late in his career, and how Phillip’s affection for Irving deepened over the course of the book. We also discuss Phillip’s complicated relationship with his brother, Leonard Lopate, why personal essayists tend not to write autobiographies, and how Leonards’s death has spurred him to write a memoir, his passion for visiting writers’ homes (including Irving’s Sunnyside and Montaigne’s tower), his career-long goal of passing along the writing that’s worth keeping (whether through teaching, editing essay anthologies, or appearing multiple times on some guy’s podcast), our shared exhilaration over the Knicks’ championship (and how we can’t get excited about baseball this season), and a lot more. Give it a listen! And go read A WASHINGTON IRVING SKETCH BOOK!
And listen to our 2013, 2017, 2020, 2023 conversations!
“What I was trying to do in the essay anthologies I edited was to pass on the canon of what was worth keeping. I felt that was deeply part of my teaching, and that’s one of the reasons that I stopped teaching; I felt that I’d done it.”
“My brother [Leonard Lopate] and I were friendly, but also competitive. I had to listen to a lot of bragging.”
“Irving was always expecting to be forgotten.”
Enjoy the conversation! Then check out the archives for more great episodes!
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About our Guest
Phillip Lopate is an award-winning nonfiction writer noted for his anthology The Art of the Personal Essay and his essay collections Bachelorhood, Portrait of My Body, Portrait Inside My Head, and A Year and a Day, as well as Notes on Sontag, Waterfront, and My Affair with Art House Cinema. He is professor emeritus of creative writing at Columbia University and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Go listen to our 2013, 2017, 2020, 2023 conversations!
Credits: This episode’s music is Fella by Hal Mayforth, used with permission from the artist. The conversation was recorded at Phillip’s home on a pair of Shure Beta 58A microphones feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4 digital recorder & interface. I recorded the intro and outro on a Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Microphone feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4. All processing and editing done in Adobe Audition CC. Photo of me & Phillip by me. It’s on my instagram.