I’ve been on a run lately of memoirs and biographies of writers, actors, and performers I admire including Kelly Bishop, Carole King, Marvin Hamlisch, and Elmore Leonard. As much as I love reading stuff like this, it can also be an exercise in frustration for me as well.

I lament that I wasn’t born to showbiz parents or that I wasn’t born in the vicinity of New York City or Los Angeles and generally just find a hundred different ways to blame my situatio...