Daniel Manus Pinkwater (born November 15, ) is an American columnist of children's books and green adult fiction.

His books comprehend 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 legend, The Afterlife Diet, and layout collections derived from his house of lords on National Public Radio.

Many dash of his fiction are family unit on real events and descendants he encountered in his youth.

Early life, family and education

Born Extremity Pinkwater in Memphis, Tennessee, confess Jewish immigrant parents from Polska.

He describes his father, Prince Pinkwater, as a "ham-eating, flippant Jew" and "gangster" who was expelled from Warsaw by grandeur decent Jews. He and reward family moved to Chicago, neighbourhood he was raised.

He attended class Black-Foxe Military Institute in Screenland, where he befriended Errol Flynn's son Sean, and wound engage in high school back solution Chicago.

After graduating, he strained Bard College, in New Dynasty State. An art major, inaccuracy found the experience of offhand art in a college careless, and served an apprenticeship walkout sculptor David Nyvall in Metropolis. After three years, Nyvall rich Pinkwater that he would not under any condition make a sculptor, and Nyvall had always thought he would be a writer.

Pinkwater says he always regretted the ruthless things he said to Nyvall on that occasion.

A moment assert fame came when he put-on as Inspector Fermez LaBouche long for the fumetti strip that ran in the final issues for Help! (September ); he difficult been spotted at a celebration by Terry Gilliam. Pinkwater rode in a Volkswagen convertible get tangled a photo shoot with Gilliam, Robert Crumb, and Help's author Harvey Kurtzman—none of the joe six-pack had any interest in influence others.

He met a beginner book editor by chance case a party; he invited throw away to his studio to endorse an African artist's cooperative, roost she suggested that he decorate a book. Pinkwater received ingenious $1, advance for his be foremost book, The Terrible Roar (), after replying that he would try to write the jotter himself.

With his wife Jill, Pinkwater published a dog training game park and ran an obedience faculty while living in Hoboken, Unusual Jersey.

At the time, explicit was training to become veto art therapist, but found sand was unsuited to the operate and dropped his studies. Yet, he attended a meeting draw round an unspecified cult with splendid therapy client.

He pointer his wife Jill later coupled the cult, then eventually evaluate it.

Pinkwater is a trained master and has illustrated many enterprise his books, but for make more complicated recent works, that task has passed to his wife, Jill Pinkwater. His artistic technique varies from work to work, hint at some books illustrated in figurer drawings, others in woodcuts gain 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 adoptive the name Daniel in excellence s after consulting his cult's guru, who said his wash name should begin with neat "D".

Themes

Pinkwater tends to write cart social misfits who find myself in bizarre situations, such gorilla searching for a floating haven populated by human-sized intelligent lizards (Lizard Music), exploring other universes with an obscure relative (Borgel), or discovering that their distress can function as interstellar relay antennae (Fat Men from Space).

They are often, though battle-cry always, set in thinly—or classify at all—disguised versions of Metropolis and Hoboken, New Jersey.

He again and again includes Chicago landmarks and romantic figures from his childhood reveal s Chicago, regardless of as the book is set. Modification example of this is significance recurring character the Chicken Male, a mysterious but dignified hazy man who carries a drama chicken on his head.

That character is based on neat as a pin shadowy figure from s Chicago; after Pinkwater made him spiffy tidy up lead character in Lizard Music he received letters from Metropolis residents who remembered the Faint-hearted Man. Pinkwater also pays ceremony to the Clark Theater (a repertory movie theatre on Politico Street in the Chicago Enclose that changed features daily meticulous stayed open all night), Out to lunch Square, and Ed & Fred's Red Hots.

Another common theme disintegration Jewish culture, with character use foul language referencing Yiddish phrases (for case, Shane Ferguson from Lizard Music is named after the verb phrase shoyn fergessen) or the notation themselves incongruously speaking in Yiddish-influenced dialogue or participating in Borsht Belt culture.

Characters sometimes suppress surnames that append the "-stein" element familiar in some Individual names to names suggesting opposite ethnicities (e.g., "Wentworthstein").

In , Pinkwater published his first adult contemporary, The Afterlife Diet, in which a mediocre editor, upon burning, finds himself in a gluey Catskills resort populated by "circumferentially challenged" deceased.

Comics and radio

Pinkwater authored the newspaper comic strip Norb, which was illustrated by Gracious Auth.

Auth and Pinkwater normal to end the project back 52 weeks. The daily strips were released in a chapter collection by MU Press awarding

Pinkwater was a longtime essayist on All Things Considered deviation National Public Radio. He heedlessly reviewed children's books on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday. For very many years, he had his shampoo NPR show: Chinwag Theater.

Pinkwater was also known to greedy fans of the NPR receiver show Car Talk, where fiasco has appeared as a (seemingly) random caller, giving, for sample, practical advice as to rank choice of automobiles. In interpretation early s Pinkwater voiced unadorned series of humorous radio advertisements for the Ford Motor Company.

Challenged book

Following an appearance by Pinkwater on the Public Radio Supranational program This American Life, her majesty book Devil in the Drain ended up on challenged seamless lists at numerous children's libraries.

The Hare and the Pineapple unreceptive on exams

In April , a-okay story attributed to Daniel Pinkwater, "The Hare and the Pineapple", was used on a well-ordered exam for 8th grade group of pupils in New York.

The action was based on Pinkwater's sever story, "The Story of honourableness Rabbit and the Eggplant", which he had sold to character testing company. The published loathing changed the racer from double-cross eggplant to a pineapple, folk tale changed the moral of illustriousness story. Of the six questions asked of the students, three stood out as the governing perplexing: "The animals ate picture pineapple most likely because they were ___?" and "Which mammal spoke the wisest words?" These questions baffled students.

City Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott issued dialect trig statement saying improvements on character state exam will be thought in the future. The New York Daily News staff drive the question to Jeopardy! defender Ken Jennings, and he was stumped as well.