The Legacy of Art Seidenbaum

Art Seidenbaum will be sorely missed by free-lance writers. As former editor of Book Review, Art encouraged off-the-beaten-path stories about literary Los Angeles that appeared in the phased-out Westview column.

And he could be kind even when he had to be cruel. Rejected articles, when he served as Opinion editor, were always accompanied by a comforting word or two of explanation. The sight of his name on a Times envelope always set my heart aflutter.

And however brief the note’s contents, he invariably closed with a kind of life motif: “Cheers, Art.”

ROSELLE M. LEWIS

Tarzana