Birth date: Feb. 1, 1917.
Birthplace: Chicago.
Occupation: Writer.
Current homes: Los Angeles and Palm Springs.
Marital status: Married to Alexandra Sheldon for 12 years. My first wife died after 30 years of marriage.
Children: My daughter, Mary Sheldon, 45, is a writer.
Working on: I’m promoting my 17th book, “The Sky Is Falling” (William Morrow & Co.), and I’m working on my autobiography, a novel and some country lyrics.
The last good movie I saw: “Meet the Parents.”
The book I’ve been reading: Michael Connelly’s “The Black Echo.”
Favorite meal: Pasta and fagioli, and spaghetti puttanesca.
Personal heroes: Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and George Bernard Shaw.
If I could do it over: I would have started writing novels at an earlier age. I didn’t start till I was 50.
The one thing I can’t stand: Censorship. I don’t think there’s any such thing as a little bit of censorship. That’s like being a little bit pregnant. There was a minister who demanded that his local library not only remove my books, but also give him the names of anyone who had taken them out.
If I could change one thing about myself: I’d like to have some hobbies. My wife is a photographer and painter, and she studies animals and insects and flowers. I envy her those interests.
My most irrational act: Knowing that I had to be a writer. My parents dropped out of school in the 3rd grade and my father’s proudest boast was that he never read a book. My mother instilled a love of reading in me and I always knew what I wanted to do. I sold my first poem when I was 10.
Most humbling experience: After my first literary luncheon, all the authors–Will and Ariel Durant, Francis Gary Powers who was shot down by the Russians, the columnist Jack Smith and I–sat on the dais and the women lined up in front of us for autographs. There were long lines in front of everyone but me. I took out a notebook and pretended to be busy.
The two words that best describe me: I care.
