Seidler was born into a well-to-do Jewish family in London on August 4 1937. His father, Bernard, was a fur broker and his mother, Doris, a print-maker and graphic artist. After the family home was bombed during the Blitz, the Seidlers moved to a house in Surrey, then to New York, where Bernard Seidler had an office, crossing the Atlantic in a convoy of three ships, one of which was sunk by German U-boats. “I’m pretty sure I left England speaking normally but I arrived in America a stutterer,” he recalled.
He attended Great Neck North High School with Francis Ford Coppola and it was while he was at the school that he conquered his speech impediment. Two weeks later he auditioned for the school play, Shaw’s Androcles and the Lion, and got a small role, of a Christian getting eaten by a lion.
He went to Cornell University intending to study genetics with a view to becoming a botanist, before his love of literature led him to switch to English. His tutors included Vladimir Nabokov, the author of Lolita, and James McConkey, author of Crossroads.
It took him some time to establish himself as a writer. According to the Los Angeles Times, he began by writing translation dubs for Japanese monster movies, and he spent some time in Australia working on the TV series Adventures of the Seaspray, and in New Zealand working for an advertising agency.
Sophie Anderson, a UK-based writer, is your guide to the latest trends, viral sensations, and internet phenomena. With a finger on the pulse of digital culture, she explores what’s trending across social media and pop culture, keeping readers in the know about the latest online sensations.
