Goodwillie, David 1972-

PERSONAL:

Born 1972, in Paris, France. Education: Kenyon College, graduated, 1994.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY. Agent—Kate Garrick, DeFiore & Co., 72 Spring St., Ste. 304, New York, NY 10012. E-mail—david@davidgoodwillie. com.

CAREER:

Writer, journalist, and memoirist. Played professional baseball for the Newark Buffalos. Has worked variously as a private investigator, investigative journalist, Internet entrepreneur, and sports memorabilia expert at Sotheby's auction house.

WRITINGS:

Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time (memoir), Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals, including Men's Health, Divide, Black Book, Cleveland Plain Dealer, and Newark Star-Ledger.

Contributor to anthologies, including My Father Married Your Mother: Writers Talk about Stepparents, Stepchildren, and Everyone in Between, W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

In his debut work, the memoir Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time, author and journalist David Goodwillie recounts the circuitous route his early aspirations of becoming a writer took through professional sports, Internet entrepreneurship, and a stint as a private investigator. A student at Kenyon College in the 1990s, Goodwillie was earnestly pursuing his desire to be a writer when he unexpectedly found himself the star of the college's moribund baseball team. Catching the eye of a baseball scout, Goodwillie soon found himself trying out for the Cincinnati Reds. With what Katherine A. Powers, writing in the Boston Globe, called "entertainingly self-deprecating luridness," Goodwillie describes how the tryout failed to secure him a major-league contract. Thoughts of pursuing writing surfaced again, but other distractions arose, including a job in a major security agency, a move to New York and all the attendant glitz and nightlife, a period of time spent working as a sports memorabilia expert for the auction house Sotheby's, and involvement with a series of unsuccessful Internet startups. As Goodwillie's story unfolds, it also hurtles toward the millennium and the combination of trepidation and optimism that the turn of the century engendered. Through it all, Goodwillie manages to hold on to his dreams of being a writer, despite the allure of potential easy money in other ventures, and the consistent implosion of those ventures. Reviewer Warren Cohen, writing in Entertainment Weekly, called Goodwillie a "natural yarn spinner," and a writer who is "honest about the vacuity of his temp" positions.

In his writer's memoir, Goodwillie "captures the allure and drudgery of confronting a blank page and creating something unique," commented a biographer on the Kenyon College Web site. A Kirkus Reviews critic called the book "a memoir of bilious excess, related with humor and just the right amount of acidic sadness." A Publishers Weekly contributor observed that "finely wrought details anchor the story in time and place," while Rebecca Bollen, writing in Library Journal, concluded that Goodwillie "reflects critically, yet ultimately affectionately, on the nature of American society."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time (memoir), Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC), 2006.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 15, 2006, Ian Chipman, review of Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time, p. 33.

Boston Globe, July 30, 2006, Katherine A. Powers, "Where Art and Grace Parted Ways," review of Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time.

Entertainment Weekly, May 26, 2006, Warren Cohen, review of Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time, p. 110.

Kirkus Reviews, February 15, 2006, review of Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time, p. 170.

Library Journal, April 1, 2006, Rebecca Bollen, review of Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time, p. 93.

Publishers Weekly, February 6, 2006, review of Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time, p. 51.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer, June 20, 2006, John Marshall, "Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Summer Reading!," review of Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time.

ONLINE

David Goodwillie Home Page,http://www.davidgoodwillie.com (November 22, 2006).

David Goodwillie MySpace, http://www.myspace.com/goodwillie/ (November 22, 2006).

Kenyon College Web site,http://www.kenyon.edu/ (September 5, 2006), "Author David Goodwillie to Appear at Kenyon College September 18," profile of David Goodwillie.

Small Spiral Notebook,http://www.smallspiralnotebook.com/ (November 22, 2006), Alison Weaver, interview with David Goodwillie.