Financial guru and author Andrew Tobias finds it just as crucial to discuss human rights, social responsibility and AIDS, as he does healthy finances and political participation. The prolific writer and pundit tells A&U?s B. Andrew Plant what we can all do to try to put an end to the AIDS pandemic.

In 1973, when Andrew Tobias published (under the pseudonym John Reid) the acclaimed book, The Best Little Boy in The World?a wonderful chronicle about coming to terms with his sexuality?our world did not include AIDS. At least, so far as we know. But when Tobias published The Best Little Boy in The World Grows Up twenty-five years later, in 1998, and this time under his by-then-famous real name, we were nearly twenty years into the worst pandemic of all time.

There is an interesting irony and unfortunate parallel between the first, relatively innocent tome and the second book, which came after we had all, devastatingly, been robbed of the innocence of a pre-AIDS world. Such monumental change is not lost on Tobias, who has been both successful and socially responsible, across the vastly changing decades.

He was a wunderkind at Harvard, earning two degrees there, turned out several books just as his career was getting started, wrote for New York magazine and Esquire, and graduated to a column in Time. He has authored financial software, many books, and shares his financial wisdom everywhere from public broadcasting to the Internet. As if that?s not enough, Tobias also serves as treasurer of the Democratic National Committee.

I reflected on these accomplishments as I talked with Tobias in his pied-?-terre, high above Miami?s South Beach. Here sits a handsome, witty, smart-as-a-whip successful author and entrepreneur who was born into a prosperous family and has made the most of his blessings?and he is more than willing to plop down on the couch, barefoot and in shorts, and talk to a writer about The Modern Plague.

?I remember when I first heard about it,? Tobias says. ?I was sitting at a table of a house we called Valmare, a rental house on Fire Island. Just sitting with three or four of my housemates talking?.It was June or July of 1981. They started talking about that first article in The New York Times?you know the one?.Four of the eight are gone?.

?Most of this seems like ancient history,? he says. ?The good news is that it has been a long time since I have been at the funeral of someone who died of AIDS. Even so, the problem, as we know, has not gone away. These new infections shouldn?t be happening, but they are and we can?t ignore them.?

He has been touched, like so many others, through the loss of friends. ?We used to have 120 people for [periodic] brunches; about half of them are dead,? he says. ?The other half, thankfully, are not positive or are positive and healthy.?

Two or three chapters of The Best Little Boy in The World Grows Up really touch on AIDS. But the BLBITW (Best Little Boy in The World), as Tobias refers to himself in the book, wasn?t supposed to have to deal with the reality of a world with AIDS. But he does?by donating the monetary proceeds of his successes and by following his own financial advice, investing in endeavors that may some day vastly change the world of AIDS.

?One thing I have done is to be politically active,? Tobias says. When I ask this political veteran what he thinks people can do to affect change in terms of AIDS policy prior to the next [Presidential] election, his answer is quick and adamant. ?The next election is not that far off,? he says. ?It may seem that way, but it?s just not.?

He says the things you might expect, like that he hopes everyone is a registered voter, and that he wants them to visit www.democrats.org. ?Even your Republican readers?and you are likely to have some,? he quips, ?should take a survey on that site, give the Democrats a chance to make their case.?

Like the self-described ?knee-jerk liberal? he is, Tobias goes on to cite Human Rights Campaign statistics regarding Congressional surveys from 1994 and 2002. ?The difference is clear. It?s right there,? he says. ?There are a few Republicans who are with us on this, but the Democrats have an indisputably better record.

?If you ask the executive directors of [major AIDS service organizations], I doubt they will say, ?We gotta get rid of those Democrats because the Republicans really get what the important issues are on AIDS.??

The ever-polite BLBITW wonders what else I need to know. I remind him that we need to cover hands-on HIV-related topics.

?Charles [his partner] and I have been privileged to support GMHC [Gay Men?s Health Crisis], the AIDS Walk every June [New York?s walk], APLA [AIDS Project Los Angeles], AIDS Action Council in Washington?,? he says. ?We?re reasonably good citizens in terms of donations, and it?s easy to do and can be important.?

In fact, the photos that accompany this interview are a result of Tobias?s winning bid in a silent auction that was part of a fundraiser for an AIDS organization. He goes on to show me that a piece of artwork on the wall behind us is another AIDS fundraising purchase.

Then we steer back to the particulars of his involvement in all-things-AIDS. This time we cover investing (naturally, since he is a financial guru). ?I have invested in a couple of these private hopeful miracles,? Tobias says, explaining that one such investment is in the development of a new HIV drug and another is in GenPhar, which he says, ?[is] not just a vaccine, but a therapeutic vaccine?.?

He also contributes to and has helped host a fundraiser for Medical Education for South African Blacks (MESAB), which literally trains healthcare professionals so they can help tackle AIDS and other health crises.

As our interview winds down, Tobias pauses to flip on lights around the condo, and suggests I change seats so I can both talk to him and see the sun start to set across the waters off South Beach. He is gracious in that easy way we would all like to emulate.

That makes it easier for me to ask him to autograph a book. Tobias scurries around the apartment, opening a closet and then the door beneath an end table. He produces three more books to join the one I brought, and begins flipping them open, writing away and telling me a little about each one. As he prepares to scribble in Book Number Three, there is a confused pause and he begins laughing delightedly.

?This one is already signed,? he shares, ?for Jerry Seinfeld! Now, I wonder what I gave him!?

We wind things up leisurely and ?Andy? sees me out the door, making suggestions of what I might want to see and where I might want to eat on this darkening South Beach evening. I?m thinking about such things too, but also about the good fortune (pun intended) of having such a neat guy fully engaged in and passionate about beating AIDS.

You can?t do better than having The Best Little Boy on your team.

B. Andrew Plant is an Atlanta-based freelance writer and is Editor at Large of A&U. He interviewed Dolly Parton for the July issue.

November 2003