Franz Lidz

Franz Lidz is a frequent contributor to Condé Nast Portfolio and writes The Windup column for Portfolio.com.

He is the author of the childhood memoir Unstrung Heroes (Random House, 1991), the urban historical Ghosty Men: The Strange But True Story of the Collyer Brothers (Bloomsbury USA, 2003), and the golf memoir Fairway To Hell (ESPN Books, 2008). He was a senior writer at Sports Illustrated from 1980 to 2007.

Inspired by the advice of Ezra Pound scholar Hugh Kenner ("You have an obligation to visit the great men of your time"), he once made a pilgrimage to Gore Vidal's villa in Ravello, Italy, inveigling his way in with the line: "I'm on a world tour of the homes of everyone I've ever seen on The Merv Griffin Show."

He was a theater major at Antioch College. He decided to become a journalist because a graduate school professor told him, "It's fun to be a reporter. You get to wear a sweater all day."