Daniel Pinkwater | |
---|---|
Born | Manus Pinkwater November 15, 1941 Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. |
Pen name | Daniel Pinkwater, Daniel M. Pinkwater, Daniel Manus Pinkwater, D. Manus Pinkwater |
Occupation | Author, illustrator |
Alma mater | Bard College |
Genre | Children's literature, young adult fiction |
Notable works | |
Spouse | Jill Pinkwater (1969-2022; her death) |
Website | |
pinkwater |
Daniel Manus Pinkwater (born November 15, 1941) is an American author of children's books and young adult fiction. His books include Lizard Music, The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death, Fat Men from Space, Borgel , and the picture book The Big Orange Splot . He has also written an adult novel, The Afterlife Diet, and essay collections derived from his talks on National Public Radio.
Many elements of his fiction are based on real events and people he encountered in his youth.
Born Manus Pinkwater in Memphis, Tennessee, to Jewish immigrant parents from Poland. He describes his father, Philip Pinkwater, as a "ham-eating, iconoclastic Jew" and "gangster" who was expelled from Warsaw by the decent Jews. [1] He and his family moved to Chicago, where he was raised.
He attended the Black-Foxe Military Institute in Hollywood, where he befriended Errol Flynn's son Sean, [1] and wound up in high school back in Chicago. After graduating, he attended Bard College, in New York State. An art major, he found the experience of studying art in a college unsatisfactory, and served an apprenticeship with sculptor David Nyvall in Chicago. After three years, Nyvall told Pinkwater that he would never make it as a sculptor, and Nyvall had always thought he would be a writer. Pinkwater says he always regretted the unkind things he said to Nyvall on that occasion.
A moment of fame came when he posed as Inspector Fermez LaBouche for the fumetti strip that ran in the final issues of Help! (September 1965); he had been spotted at a party by Terry Gilliam. Pinkwater rode in a Volkswagen convertible to a photo shoot with Gilliam, Robert Crumb, and Help's creator Harvey Kurtzman—none of the men had any interest in the others. [1] He met a children's book editor by chance at a party; he invited her to his studio to promote an African artist's cooperative, and she suggested that he illustrate a book. Pinkwater received a $1,500 advance for his first book, The Terrible Roar (1970), after replying that he would try to write the book himself. [1]
With his wife Jill, Pinkwater published a dog training book and ran an obedience school while living in Hoboken, New Jersey. At the time, he was training to become an art therapist, but found he was unsuited to the work and dropped his studies. However, he attended a meeting of an unspecified cult with a therapy client. He and his wife Jill later joined the cult, then eventually left it. [1]
Pinkwater is a trained artist and has illustrated many of his books, but for more recent works, that task has passed to his wife, Jill Pinkwater. His artistic technique varies from work to work, with some books illustrated in computer drawings, others in woodcuts and others in Magic Marker.
Pinkwater varies his name slightly between books (for instance, "Daniel Pinkwater", "Daniel M. Pinkwater", "Daniel Manus Pinkwater", "D. Manus Pinkwater"). He adopted the name Daniel in the 1970s after consulting his cult's guru, who said his true name should begin with a "D". [1]
Pinkwater tends to write about social misfits who find themselves in bizarre situations, such as searching for a floating island populated by human-sized intelligent lizards (Lizard Music), exploring other universes with an obscure relative ( Borgel ), or discovering that their teeth can function as interstellar radio antennae (Fat Men from Space). They are often, though not always, set in thinly—or not at all—disguised versions of Chicago and Hoboken, New Jersey.
He often includes Chicago landmarks and folkloric figures from his childhood in 1950s Chicago, regardless of when the book is set. An example of this is the recurring character the Chicken Man, a mysterious but dignified black man who carries a performing chicken on his head. This character is based on a shadowy figure from 1950s Chicago; after Pinkwater made him a lead character in Lizard Music he received letters from Chicago residents who remembered the Chicken Man. Pinkwater also pays tribute to the Clark Theater (a repertory movie theatre on Clark Street in the Chicago Loop that changed features daily and stayed open all night), Bughouse Square, and Ed & Fred's Red Hots.
Another common theme is Jewish culture, with character names referencing Yiddish phrases (for example, Shane Ferguson from Lizard Music is named after the phrase shoyn fergessen) or the characters themselves incongruously speaking in Yiddish-influenced dialogue or participating in Borscht Belt culture. Characters sometimes have surnames that append the "-stein" element familiar in some Jewish names to names suggesting other ethnicities (e.g., "Wentworthstein").
In 1995, Pinkwater published his first adult novel, The Afterlife Diet, in which a mediocre editor, upon dying, finds himself in a tacky Catskills resort populated by "circumferentially challenged" deceased.
Pinkwater authored the newspaper comic strip Norb , which was illustrated by Tony Auth. The strip, syndicated by King Features, launched in 70 papers, but received nothing but hate-mail from the readers. Auth and Pinkwater agreed to end the project after 52 weeks. [2] The daily strips were released in a 78-page collection by MU Press in 1992.
Pinkwater was a longtime commentator on All Things Considered on National Public Radio. He regularly reviewed children's books on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday. For several years, he had his own NPR show: Chinwag Theater. Pinkwater was also known to avid fans of the NPR radio show Car Talk , where he has appeared as a (seemingly) random caller, commenting, for example, on the physics of the buttocks (giving rise to the proposed unit of measure of seat size: the Pinkwater), and giving practical advice as to the choice of automobiles. In the early 1990s Pinkwater voiced a series of humorous radio advertisements for the Ford Motor Company.
Following an appearance by Pinkwater on the Public Radio International program This American Life , [3] his book Devil in the Drain ended up on challenged book lists at numerous children's libraries. [4]
In April 2012, a story attributed to Daniel Pinkwater, "The Hare and the Pineapple", was used on a standardized exam for 8th grade students in New York. The story was based on Pinkwater's short story, "The Story of the Rabbit and the Eggplant", which he had sold to the testing company. [5] The published version changed the racer from an eggplant to a pineapple, and changed the moral of the story. [6] [7] Of the six questions asked of the students, two stood out as the most perplexing: "The animals ate the pineapple most likely because they were ___?" and "Which animal spoke the wisest words?" [8] These questions baffled students. [9] City Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott issued a statement saying improvements on the state exam will be made in the future. [10] The New York Daily News staff sent the question to Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings, and he was stumped as well. [11]
Robot Chicken is an American adult stop motion-animated sketch comedy television series created by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich for Cartoon Network's nighttime programming block Adult Swim. The writers, most prominently Green, also provide many of the voices. Senreich, Douglas Goldstein, and Tom Root were formerly writers for the popular action figure hobbyist magazine ToyFare. Robot Chicken has won two Annie Awards and six Emmy Awards.
Mike Mazurki was a Ukrainian-American actor and professional wrestler who appeared in more than 142 films. Although educated as an attorney, his hulking 6 ft 5 in (196 cm) presence, craggy face, and croaking voice had him often typecast as brainless athletes, tough guys, thugs, and gangsters. Memorable roles included Moose Malloy in Murder, My Sweet (1944), Splitface in Dick Tracy (1945), Yusuf in Sinbad the Sailor (1947), and "The Strangler" in Night and the City (1950). He was the founder and first president of the Cauliflower Alley Club.
Yobgorgle: Mystery Monster of Lake Ontario is a young adult comedy novel by American author Daniel Pinkwater. It was first published in 1979.
William Anthony Auth Jr. was an American editorial cartoonist and children's book illustrator. Auth is best known for his syndicated work originally drawn for The Philadelphia Inquirer, for whom he worked from 1971 to 2012. Auth's art won the cartoonist the Pulitzer Prize in 1976 and the Herblock Prize in 2005.
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Steven Castle Kellogg is an American author and illustrator who has created more than 90 children's books.
The Adventures of Smilin' Jack is an aviation comic strip that first appeared October 1, 1933, in the Chicago Tribune and ended April 1, 1973.
The Hoboken Chicken Emergency is a 1977 children's book by Daniel and Jill Pinkwater. The book may have been inspired by the Jersey Giant breed of chicken.
The Big Orange Splot is a children's picture book by Daniel Manus Pinkwater. It was published in 1977 by Scholastic Inc., New York. The age range is ages 4–8, and all 32 pages have a full color picture, which helps the child visualize when reading.
Borgel is a children's novel by Daniel Pinkwater published in 1990.
Slaves of Spiegel is a 1982 epistolary novel by Daniel Pinkwater.
The Worms of Kukumlima, written by Daniel Pinkwater, is a humorous book for all ages, first published in 1981.
Bonio is a brand of dog biscuit sold in the United Kingdom. It was originally sold by Spratts Patent Ltd. of London some 75 years ago, but through various acquisitions, it is now marketed by Nestlé Purina PetCare. Bonio is produced in Aintree, Liverpool.
The composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) led a life that was dramatic in many respects, including his career as a child prodigy, his struggles to achieve personal independence and establish a career, his brushes with financial disaster, and his death in the course of attempting to complete his Requiem. Authors of fictional works have found his life a compelling source of raw material. Such works have included novels, plays, operas, and films.
The Muppet Show is a comic book series based on the variety television series of the same title created by Jim Henson and featuring The Muppets. The series was written and drawn by Roger Langridge and published by Boom! Kids, an imprint of Boom! Studios. In 2011, the Boom! license with Disney Publishing Worldwide expired. Disney's own comic book publishing subsidiary, Marvel Comics, renamed the series Muppets and published four issues in 2012.
Chad Henry is an American composer, actor, lyricist, playwright, and author. He has written over twenty musical theatre titles that premiere in his home state, Washington. He has long been associated with director/producer Linda Hartzell, artistic director of Seattle Children's Theatre, and with the late John Kauffman, director of many early Empty Space Theatre and Seattle Repertory Theatre works.
The Open Seasonfilm series from Sony Pictures Animation consists of the animated film Open Season (2006) and its three direct-to-video sequels Open Season 2 (2008), Open Season 3 (2010), and Open Season: Scared Silly (2015), the short film Boog and Elliot's Midnight Bun Run (2007), the television series Open Season: Call of Nature (2024–present) and a video game based on the first film.
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Open Season: Scared Silly is a 2015 American animated comedy film produced by Sony Pictures Animation, with animation provided by Mainframe Studios. It is the fourth installment of the Open Season film series, following 2006's Open Season, 2008's Open Season 2, and 2010's Open Season 3. It also serves as a direct sequel to the second film while taking place between the second and third installments. The film features the voices of Donny Lucas, Will Townsend & Melissa Sturm.
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