Recorded in: Los Angeles, California
Episode Length: 27:40
Air Date: November 30, 2021
Produced by: Jordan Weitzman
Edited by: Ellen Payne Smith
In the summer of 1965, the author Linda Rosenkrantz, then in her early 30’s had an idea - to record her friends over the course of a summer. She made hundreds of hours of recorded conversations then spent a year transcribing it all, and then worked to an edit in order to make her book TALK. It was radical then and since has a cult classic.
In one of her next projects, she had the idea to ask some of her friends to write down everything they did one day - from the time they woke up to the time they went to bed, in all it’s detail and minutiae. One of her friends was Peter Hujar, and he agreed to take Linda up on her assignment - he could have picked any day, but the on the one he chose, he ended up going to photograph Allen Ginsberg, had an editor from french Elle on her way back to Paris who came over. In their conversation, at one point, Peter says something like “you know, I never think I really do anything in a day, but I’m realizing how much I actually do.” To which Linda responds - well, that’s why I’m doing this!” You can read their conversation in a new book we published with Magic Hour Press called Peter Hujar’s Day.
We recorded this interview in the Valley in L.A., where she’s been living for the past 35 years.
Cover of the first edition of Rosenkrantz’ 1968 novel Talk
Cover of Rosenkrantz’ 2021 book Peter Hujar’s Day