Llewellyn History: The 1990s

Sydney Omarr, Llewellyn author, world famous columnist, and astrologer to the stars, passed away on January 2, 2003, as the result of a heart attack.

Time Magazine has called Sydney "Astrology's most skillful public protagonist." For over thirty years, Omarr's astrological column has appeared in over 200 newspapers around the world, including the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and the Miami Herald. His books are "secret" bestsellers - they never made the New York Times list, yet they have sold over 50 million copies worldwide.

Born in Philadelphia, Omarr had the Sun in Leo in the Tenth House. In his book, Astrological Revelations About You, he said this about his own Sun sign: "Leo is associated with the heart of matters." He got down to the basics of each sign in his writing. He discussed personality, how you approach love and romance, and even how and what to cook for each sign. Sydney was skilled in revealing the good, the bad, and the lovely about every sign. Omarr wrote numerous other books, including his Astrological Guide to Love and Romance, and Sydney Omarr's Cooking with Astrology.

Omarr, well-known in astrological circles, received prestigious awards from both the Professional Astrologers Inc. (1968) and the American Federation of Astrologers (1986) for his outstanding contributions to the field of astrology.

Omarr was interested in astrology from his teens. He wrote articles for astrological magazines, and published his first book at $2.00 per copy. According to the Los Angeles Times, Sidney Kimmelman changed his last name to Omar after watching Shanghai Gesture, a movie starring Victor Mature. The spelling of both names was changed because of numerology.

After he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1971, Omarr continued his active work as an astrologer. He appeared on television with Mike Douglas, Johnny Carson, and Merv Griffin.

Carl Weschcke, president of Llewellyn Publications, reflects on his association with Sydney Omarr:

"I first met Sydney early in the 1960's at a Hollywood press party when he had just signed to write his first nationally syndicated newspaper horoscopes, and shortly published a small astrology book. At the same party I met Ma Kettle, Jayne Mansfield, and Geraldine Saunders, who became Sydney's wife. I'm sure there were other people and celebrities there, but I remember only these.

"Sydney was a close friend and protégé of Carl Payne Tobey, who admired Sydney immensely for his iconoclastic views of just about everything. Sydney wrote more than just astrology books. Among his early successes Llewellyn published "The Thought Dial" - a numerology prognosticator using a "spinable cardboard wheel" to set up a series of random numbers presumably in psychic response to the question asked. He also wrote a book, with astrological foundations, on his good friend Henry Miller.

"Omarr, like Tobey, Grant Lewi, and many other astrologers, came into astrology as a skeptic seeking to disprove it and making the important discovery, 'It works!' Sydney Omarr found he could make a living as a "popular" sun sign horoscope writer, while astrologers who disdained the popular medium of newspapers and newsstand magazines had to turn to other jobs to make a living. Today, due in part to the popularizing of astrology by these writers, astrologers can practice professionally and astrology has indeed become a profession sustained by the example and leadership of people like Noel Tyl.

"Omarr was a stubborn and persistent pioneer of modern, down-to-earth, astrology without whose work the profession might not have reached its present stature."