The National Arts Club Presents: Our Times and The New York Times: Stories, as told by Christopher Lehmann-Haupt and Natalie Robins.

Christopher Lehmann-Haupt wrote for The New York Times for some four decades, until 2006.  In that time, he served on the Sunday Book Review, as Senior Daily Book Reviewer, and as chief obituary writer.  Mostly he worked at home, cohabiting with his wife, the prize-winning author Natalie Robins.  Looking back, they see themselves as having experienced a sort of ménage a trois, composed of the two of them and HIM — the presence whose byline appeared some 4,000 times over those years, and for whom they both slaved.  For HIM, the phone rang and bags of books arrived daily and from HIM they often wished to — but never could — escape.

How they dealt with HIM makes for many anecdotes.  Somehow, Natalie wrote her books, ranging from “Savage Grace,” which became a film starring Julianne Moore, to “The Girl Who Died Twice,” the story of Libby Zion’s death.  Christopher helped to edit them.  Christopher wrote his books, “Me and DiMaggio” and two novels, which Natalie helped edit.

Join us as Christopher and Natalie interview each other, answer questions, and illuminate three writing lives of our times: theirs, and HIM’s.