18 Facts About Daniel Pinkwater

Daniel Manus Pinkwater was born on November 15,1941 and is an American author of children's books and young adult fiction.

Daniel Pinkwater's 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.

Daniel Pinkwater has written an adult novel, The Afterlife Diet, and essay collections derived from his talks on National Public Radio.

Daniel Pinkwater describes his father, Philip Pinkwater, as a "ham-eating, iconoclastic Jew" and "gangster" who was expelled from Warsaw by the decent Jews.

Daniel Pinkwater attended the Black-Foxe Military Institute in Hollywood, where he befriended Errol Flynn's son Sean, and wound up in high school back in Chicago.

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

Daniel Pinkwater 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.

Daniel Pinkwater received a $1,500 advance for his first book, The Terrible Roar, after replying that he would try to write the book himself.

Daniel 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 Daniel Pinkwater.

Daniel Pinkwater adopted the name Daniel in the 1970s after consulting his cult's guru, who said his true name should begin with a "D".

Daniel 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, exploring other universes with an obscure relative, or discovering that their teeth can function as interstellar radio antennae.

Daniel Pinkwater often includes Chicago landmarks and folkloric figures from his childhood in 1950s Chicago, regardless of when the book is set.

In 1995, Daniel 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.

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

Auth and Daniel Pinkwater agreed to end the project after 52 weeks.

Daniel Pinkwater was a longtime commentator on All Things Considered on National Public Radio.

Daniel Pinkwater regularly reviewed children's books on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday.

Daniel Pinkwater was known to avid fans of the NPR radio show Car Talk, where he has appeared as a random caller, commenting, for example, on the physics of the buttocks, and giving practical advice as to the choice of automobiles.