BIOGRAPHY

Jill Robinson was born in Los Angeles. She is well-known for her talks on Hollywood Myths and Legends; stories about her childhood in Hollywood, life at her father’s studio, and LA during the black-listing years. Her father was Oscar and Tony winner, Dore Schary, head of MGM during the 50s and the only writer to ever run a film studio. Her mother, the artist, M. Svet, studied at the Art Students League in New York.

Robinson’s first book With A Cast of Thousands, was about growing up in Hollywood. After she moved to New York, she wrote for Cosmopolitan Magazine, during the template Helen Gurley Brown years. Robinson also covered trials for the The Soho Weekly News. In 1974, her memoir Bed/Time/Story won a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The novel Perdido established Robinson as a serious American writer. Vanity Fair described Past Forgetting as “the astounding chronicle of her journey to recover her memory.” This experience encouraged her to start the Wimpole Street Writers’ Workshop, which attracts some of the most original young writers in London.

Robinson has reviewed books and written articles for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, and American and French Vogue. Recently, she wrote a series of columns on being an American in London for the Daily Telegraph Saturday Magazine. Her Vanity Fair story on Roman Polanski was included in George Plimpton’s book, The Best American Movie Writing for 1998.

Robinson has taught Master Classes for the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts and has lectured on writing around America and Britain. She toured with her husband, the English writer Stuart Shaw, reading their play Falling in Love When You Thought You Were Through (adapted from their book).


BOOKS

Falling in Love When You Thought You Were Through, a memoir written with Stuart Shaw (HarperCollins, 2002)

Past Forgetting, a memoir (HarperCollins, 1999)

Star Country, a novel (Fawcett Columbine, 1996)

Follow Me Through Paris
, illustrations by Robinson (Lublin Graphics, 1983)

Dr. Rocksinger and the Age of Longing
(Knopf, 1982)

Perdido (Random House, 1978)

Bed/Time/Story (Random House, 1974)

Thanks for the Rubies, Now Please Pass the Moon (The Dial Press, 1972)

With a Cast of Thousands (Stein and Day, 1963)

IN COLLECTIONS


Polanski’s Inferno in The Best American Movie Writing 1998

Edited by George Plimpton (St. Martin’s Griffin, 1998)


Stardust
in Thoughts of Home: Reflections on Families, Houses & Homelands

Edited by Elaine Greene (Hearst Books, 1995)


HersThrough Women’s Eyes. Essays and columns for the New York Times

(Villard Books, 1985)


Fantasia in American Dreams: Lost & Found

Edited by Studs Terkel (Pantheon Books, 1980)


ARTICLES

The New York Times

The New Tatterdemalions

Pioneers Abroad

The Boss Never Pours

Friends, Lovers, Children: Of Getting and Giving Books

Hers columns (1978-1981)
Vanity Fair
Cover story on Roman Polanski (1998)
People Magazine

Cover story on Barbra Streisand’s wedding (1998)

Harper & Queens

Cover story on Princess Grace.

The Telegraph Saturday Magazine


Eight columns (1997)

French Vogue


Profile on Liz Hurley

American Vogue


Movie Star Express (The Orient Express goes to Venice)

Women & Success: Now you’ve got it, how do you live it?

Blog Entries by Jill Robinson

Poutine, With Apologies to Calvin Trillin

2 Comments | Posted November 23, 2009 | 02:31 PM (EST)


I returned to America from 25 years in London around a year and a half ago, really excited at the possibility if a lot of us got involved we could elect an articulate President who had some serious and good principles and wrote his own books. Seemed to go well,...

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Up Where The People Are

Posted March 9, 2009 | 06:33 PM (EST)


Up Where The People Are

You probably don't have much character if all you really want is to be famous so you can have your picture in, "Up Where the People Are." In sequins, at horse races, a program furled in tan kid gloves, on the red carpet, on the...

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Election Morning 2008

Posted November 5, 2008 | 06:28 PM (EST)


"You want to get there before 7 a.m.; the lines will be huge." "Be sure to get your receipt for your ballot." "Take snacks and something to read."
Who could sleep on November 3rd? Coming home from working in Obama's Santa Monica office, "You will not watch CNN. You...

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Palin Excuses

Posted October 1, 2008 | 12:34 PM (EST)


The McCain Campaign is scrambling for any possible excuse to keep VP candidate Sarah Palin far away from Thursday's debate in St Louis lest she give a repeat performance of her interview with Katie Couric. With the Wall Street crisis apparently solidly under control due to Senator McCain's yeoman-like work,...

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Moving Home

Posted September 16, 2008 | 05:25 PM (EST)


This is six months ago. I am moving home to Los Angeles after living in London for twenty-five years. I remember most of the times I moved in America; I was usually broke. Friends would come over; you'd have pizza, talk about what you'd keep and what you'd toss,...

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Election Reflections

Posted September 12, 2008 | 02:35 PM (EST)


When you're waiting to hear news about what's going on with the lives of people you love, and the candidates you believe in, the wait feels longer when you're away - can you imagine what those waits must feel to them? The candidates who stay through the years have...
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A Perfect Valentine's Evening in London

Posted February 13, 2007 | 02:05 PM (EST)


I'm having a hot dream; I'm in a large bath in a white 2050 style flat in Shanghai. Young Chinese men in white t-shirts and tights are working on a huge scaffolding, but also peering in, watching me. I'm turned on by their attention. Now, I'm in the giant,...

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Christmas in London

Posted December 22, 2006 | 11:33 AM (EST)


This was the first year I've had a Christmas tree. We have two bright young people living with us in our house in London and lots of young writers from this workshop I run, are in and out. "It won't be fancy. I'll tie colored pencils on it." This makes...

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Calmly Discussing How and Where to Die

Posted September 5, 2006 | 06:03 PM (EST)


I say I don't cry, except this morning when I couldn't fend off the fear. I cry before I go to the hospital. I look at the room my husband will be in downstairs, with the hospital bed. If he comes home.

I want him sleeping in my house....

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