Lily Koppel is a recovering journalist. Several years ago, what she recovered was a disintegrating diary in a dumpster that heralded the arrival of the Great Depression penned by an unrepentant young woman who refused to be greatly depressed by the woeful state of the economy; of the spirit that prevailed at the time that dictated the rules of social and sexual conduct.

Florence Wolfson refused to be sexually or socially impoverished, as the rich and provocative passages from her journal documented. Upon finding the journal, Koppel developed Florence’s story into The Red Leather Diary: Reclaiming a Life through the Pages of a Lost Journal (see review, at left).

Koppel, it seems, is no less ballsy than the subject of her best-selling discovery. Here is the world according to Lily.

Gay & Lesbian Times: You started out at the Metro desk at The New York Times as a clerk.

Lily Koppel: Oh, that’s the PC term for copy boy. Everybody starts there, so it’s not unusual to have that as a starting point. But I was sent to interview Liza Minelli as my second assignment, for a column of the paper called “Bold Face” and when I described her looking like a penguin on stilts, I think it started to establish the way I apply color when I write.

GLT: Are you ever accused of being too pushy with an interview?

LK: I interviewed Helen Thomas once. She was a White House reporter for the Washington Post, and was extremely critical of President Bush. It got her barred from the press room. She told me, and I think it’s true: be human first, but it’s not your job to be polite. I try to be human, first, but I do whatever it takes to get a good interview. I interviewed (the late) Maharishi Mahesh Yogi once in the Netherlands. He was really being allusive, and the only way I got him to open up was to press him about his finances. He got really angry. And one time just by chance I shared an elevator with Lindsay Lohan. Her publicist was an extremely protective chaperone, telling me not to talk to her, not to say anything, and suddenly I’m thinking, this is America. I can say whatever I want. So in spite of the protection, Lindsay and I had a few good moments.

GLT: So, you try to provoke?

LK: Not at all. I don’t come to interview with any pre-conceived notions of what I will get or how to get it.

GLT: How do you know if someone is being straight, or giving you a canned answer? Do you squeeze ’em for information? Or do your stroke ’em?

LK: Oh, I think you have to be like a musician. You know intuitively if someone is being honest – they seem to be an instrument tuned. It’s pretty easy to tell when they’re covering something up. They’re out of tune. It’s not a matter of provoking someone – which, of course, I did with the Maharishi – or flattering them. Look, I deal almost exclusively with huge celebrities. What I try to do is recognize that they are just the same as you or me, but by some combination of luck and talent and lots of tabloid ink they are given this god-like status. I am always interested in their take on that phenomenon, whether they see it as a blessing or a curse. I simply try to engage them in conversation, and be as small as possible while I do it. Let them tell their story.

GLT: What’s the best part of the process? Is it association with the famous?

LK: No. What I really like is the picture they paint of themselves with words. I am also a painter, and the selection of words that people use to paint themselves has always appealed to me.

GLT: And did Florence Wolfson, the author of the journal that you developed into, well, appropriately, a portrait of her as a young girl and a cityscape of New York in the 30s paint well with words?

LK: Absolutely. I think it’s what drew me into her story.

GLT: I think the book review pretty much covers all that. What we are really interested in are your own views of the world at large. You’ve been around for someone so young. How old are you?

LK: I’m 27, but a lot of times when I interview people, I come across as a lot younger.

GLT: Hillary Clinton spoke of cracks in the ceiling, by implication an accomplishment for a feminist movement. Your thoughts?

LK: You can be feminine and feminist at the same time. You can be masculine and a feminist. I don’t see feminism as a militant movement, simply as a quest for equal opportunities.

GLT: Do you think the GOP vice presidential pick exploits women? Would Sarah Palin have been selected if she were a man?

LK: She is definitely being exploited, allowing herself to be exploited. She is being passed off as the new GOP Barbie Doll. No experience to lead the free world. A hockey mom.

GLT: What does it say about John McCain?

LK: It shows a complete lack of respect. But Americans love a good story. She’s been picked like an actress for a soap opera, someone who will be entertaining.

GLT: Do you think women have an obligation to the cause of social justice to vote Republican because there is a woman on the ticket?

LK: Absolutely not. Like a lot of people, I am hoping this is going to be an issue-based election.

GLT: Do you ever feel you have been held back in your career for being a woman?

LK: I recently wrote a story about “Mad Men” for The New York Times. The office place is definitely not the 60s anymore. All I do is focus on my job, and issues of gender never really come up.

GLT: What would you be doing if you were not writing?

LK: I would probably be a painter. Writing keeps me from painting, but I’ve always seen myself as a writer, and always wanted to be. I was working on a novel and took the gig at The New York Times to support myself rather than waitressing, to allow me to write.

GLT: It seems to be working for you.

LK: It has. I just gave a keynote address at Barnard, my Alma Mater. The Red Leather Diary was required reading for some of the classes.

GLT: Projects in the pipeline?

LK: I was really amazed how Florence’s journal and the book that followed affected her children. They had no idea there was so much to know about their own mother. So I am doing a book about how it is that we come to know our mothers, and I am using my own mother for material.

GLT: Any advice for those those still working on cracking the glass ceiling?

LK: My mother sent me a painting with a quote from Maureen Dowd [Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author of Are Men Necessary? When Sexes Collide] – “Always approach the shrimp bowl like you own it.” You are in control. Don’t be a wallflower. Keep that attitude and gender issues won’t hold you back.

Thornton Sully is a freelance editor and writer in North County