Daniel Manus Pinkwater (born November 15, 1941) in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, is an author of mostly children's books and is an occasional commentator on National Public Radio. He attended Bard College. Well-known 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. Pinkwater has also illustrated many of his books in the past, although for more recent works that task has passed to his wife Jill Pinkwater. Pinkwater tends to write books about (frequently obese) 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), and discovering that their teeth can function as interstellar radio antennae (Fat Men from Space). They are often, though not always, set in thinly disguised versions of Chicago or New Jersey. A recurring character in many of his books is the Chicken Man, an elderly man who carries a performing chicken on his head. 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, was cancelled after 52 weeks.[1] Pinkwater varies his name slightly between books ("Daniel Pinkwater", "Daniel M. Pinkwater", "Daniel Manus Pinkwater", "D. Manus Pinkwater", etc.); allegedly, he claims that he does this in order to annoy the librarians who have to catalogue his books. Mr. Pinkwater is also a longtime commentator on National Public Radio. He regularly reviews children's books on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday. For several years, he had his own NPR show, Chinwag Theater. Pinkwater is 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.
Contents |
Partial bibliography
Children's books
- The Artsy Smartsy Club
- Blue Moose (1975)
- Fat Camp Commandoes
- Fat Camp Commandoes Go West
- Fat Men from Space
- The Hoboken Chicken Emergency (recent editions ill. by Jill Pinkwater)
- The Last Guru
- Lizard Music (1976)
- Looking for Bobowicz: A Hoboken Chicken Story
- The Lunchroom of Doom
- The Magic Moscow
- The Magic Pretzel
- The Muffin Fiend
- The Neddiad (2007)
- Slaves of Spiegel
- The Wuggie Norple Story (1980)
Young adult/Teen novels
- Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars (1979)
- Borgel (1990)
- The Education of Robert Nifkin
- The Snarkout Boys books:
- The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death
- The Snarkout Boys and the Baconburg Horror
- The Worms of Kukumlima
- Yobgorgle: Mystery Monster of Lake Ontario
- Young Adult Novel
Picture books
- Bad Bears in the Big City : an Irving & Muktuk story
- The Big Orange Splot
- The Devil in the Drain
- Doodle Flute
- Ducks!
- Guys From Space
- Irving and Muktuk : Two Bad Bears
- The Larry Books
- Young Larry (1997)
- At the Hotel Larry (1997)
- Bongo Larry (1998)
- Ice Cream Larry (1999)
- Dancing Larry (2006)
- Rainy Morning (ill. by Jill Pinkwater)
- Spaceburger: a Kevin Spoon and Mason Mintz Story
- Toothgnasher Superflash
- Wempires
Adult fiction
- The Afterlife Diet
Non-fiction
- Hoboken Fish and Chicago Whistle: a book of essays, combining essays from two previous books:
- Chicago Days, Hoboken Nights
- Fish Whistle
- Superpuppy: on raising a dog
- Uncle Boris in the Yukon and Other Shaggy Dog Stories
References
- Daniel Manus Pinkwater. Entry in Contemporary Authors Online, Thomson Gale, 2005. Accessed 2005-09-27.
Further reading
- Pinkwater, Daniel. "The Revenge of Pinkwater", The Washington Post, 1987-11-08.
- Waldrop, Howard. "Daniel Pinkwater Weighs In", The Washington Post, 1989-10-01.
