If you are or have ever been an author, or if you have ever dreamed of being one, you won't want to miss Cynthia Ozick's essay in The New York Times today, "Lighting Out for the Territory," a diary detailing her first book tour at age seventy-something and 38 years after the publication of her first book. I blogged about Ozick not too long ago and noted that Heir to the Glimmering World is being acclaimed nearly everywhere.

Here's a brief excerpt from the essay:

Mid-August 2004. Press interviews, mainly by telephone. Author is pleased: she can be invisible in ragged pajamas while literarily pontificating. ''What do you think,'' interviewer asks, ''of Philip Roth's new novel?'' Author excitedly reports she has read it, it swept her away! Author and interviewer engage in extended discussion of genius of Philip Roth. Later it occurs to Author she has mostly forgotten to speak of her own new novel -- did she even remember to say its name?

Oh, I'd love to meet her!