Mr. Pinkwater, on my counter sits a heaped plate of brownies and a rather large bowl of cherries. I am unsure how to proceed. Thoughts?
I am so glad you thought to consult me before doing anything! The combination of brownies and cherries can be toxic! It's one of those anomalies of the natural world. Individually tasty and more or less nutritious...together they can wreak havoc. No one wants to have havoc wreaked.
I am thinking of getting a Pinkwater inspired tattoo. What do you suggest? (Larry the polar bear is not an option because my ex-husband’s name is Larry). Thanks for your thoughts.
Oh, please, please do not get a Pinkwater-inspired tattoo. Others have done it, and I worry that the day will come when they get tired of it. Or they will find another book of mine, and say, now THIS is the image I should have gotten, not this stupid duck.
Dear Daniel Pinkwater,
I wrote you a letter a while back and I enjoy that you responded. I have a school assignment that I hope you’ll help me with. I need to interview you about something you like and why you like it. Could you please answer those two questions? I’m in second grade and everybody has the assignment. I already interviewed my Grandma. She was very interested in the work. She said she likes going to concerts, because she likes seeing live music, especially at Roger Williams Park. I live in Boston, Massachusetts. I told her about your books. She read one and she loved it. She read Hoboken Days, Chicago Nights. I love Once Upon A Blue Moose. I read it by myself without a grownup. It was awesome! I think it is the best book I ever read and that is the truth. I love your writing because it is funny and cool and awesome and great. The first book I ever read by you is The Big Orange Splot. My favorite character in it is Mr. Plumbean. I think it is a very funny story. I think Mr. Plumbean was very smart. By the way, is frangipani a real thing? Please also answer that question if you don’t mind.
Sincerely,
Amishai
p.s.
I really like the book Borgel and the book Lizard Music.
You are a good reader--the kind of reader I like.
Something I like:Â I like vegetable soup, (with a LOT of vegetables.)
Why I like it: Like a lot of people, I thought I did not care about vegetables. Then we started making home-made vegetable soup with about 20 vegetables in it. I like it 1. Because it tastes good, 2. Because it makes me feel so good, 3. Because you can eat it all day long, (my friend Calef Brown wrote a book called Soup for Breakfast,) 4. Because it tastes good.
Frangipani is a real thing.
www.facebook.com/pages/orange-splot-art-spot/229028567118213
I saw this business in my town. I’m a big fan, isn’t this infringement?
I know about it. It's a business with very nicely done copies of my art as murals and the name, and the theme...it's infringement--but I don't care. If the nutcase who runs it had asked for permission, I probably would have said yes--but apparently too insane or character-disordered to know to do that. My policy is to leave (unpleasant) loonies to do their thing unhindered.
Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
thanks so much for signing for me! You’re a truly generous individual.
Do you have a favorite charity fans could donate to in return if they feel the desire? Or should we just keep buying the books? 🙂
Keep writing and we will keep reading them!
Best wishes,
Ben
Possibly the Webmaster Ed Stethoscope Fund. It shakes his patients' confidence when he uses the cardboard center from a roll of paper towels.
I recently came into possession of a woodcut print you made in the 60 ‘s. If you can go non jocular for an instant…what is it worth? This baby is signed by you and I am interested in maybe selling it to a fan and lover of your work or a museum. I got it while traveling out west at a flea market.
This is gorgeous.
Let's see it.
Drake, you can send a photo to us at webmastered at pinkwater dot com. I tried emailing you but your address didn't work. -- Ed
Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
Today I walked into an independent bookstore in downtown Boise, Idaho with $16.99 (plus tax) in my pockets, smacked it down on the counter, and told a thin bald man with a snake tattoo on his neck, “Give me the new Pinkwater book, NOW!” His green-flecked eyes large with wonder, he pointed a shaking index finger to shelving behind me in the ‘young adult’ section and there it was, “Bushman Lives!” (Nice dust jacket by the way).
You made money, the publisher made money, a REAL book store owned by an actual human being made money (he may be able to add a scorpion tattoo to his neck), a bank did NOT get its cut for mediating the transaction, someone at the US Mint kept their job, I got a great book to read to my son (at least half of which we have read online, thanks to your graciousness) and from what I can tell you have stuck to your principles and refused to pander to the artifice of plot that is the death knell of so many other writers.
God Bless you Mr. Pinkwater. You have made my day.
Sincerely,
Bert V.
Boise, Idaho
I want everyone who reads this to copy the first paragraph of the handsome post above. Share it with others. Memorize it. Do as Bert did. It need not be Boise, Idaho, and the tattoo on the neck of the bookshop employee need not be a snake. It can be anything, a bunny, a duck with the word ""mother"" underneath, it doesn't matter. Emulate Bert's enlightened conduct, and you will feel that your life has meaning...or I will.
Mr. Pinkwater: I own a wood carving by an artist named David Nyvall. I’ve tried doing online research on the artist and he is mentioned under your name, that you apprenticed for 3 years under a David Nyvall. I don’t know if this is the same Nyvall.The wood carving i have is called, “Orpheus and the Underworld.” It is orpheus playing his lyre. the carving was given to a relative of my husbands who had given David financial assistance during the 50’s and 60’s.. Nyvall ws a medic during WW2 and spent some time in a mental hospital. Please let me know if this sounds like the Nyvall you knew. I’m just trying to gather any info i can on this artist. Thank you,
Shelley Haney
Yes, that's the guy. I'd love to see a photo of the sculpture--I may know it, or he may have done more than one with the same theme. He was was the son of a prominent churchman and educator, was a famous draft protester, finally enlisted, and was a surgical technician in WW2, (was torpedoed and rescued twice on the way to participate in the D-Day Landing), then was recruited for espionage work, fought his way out of capture, armed only with a bayonet, in the Battle of the Bulge, resumed his studies and career as an artist after the war, was hospitalized for a time, ultimately diagnosed as epileptic, and was active as a sculptor in Chicago until the late 80s--early 90s. He was affiliated for a time with the Contemporary Art Workshop in Chicago. His work is in the collection of the Whitney Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Daniel,
My wife and I read the Wuggie Norple Story to our daughter Miranda before bedtime on many occasions. It was one of her favorite books because of the character names and of course the story itself! Thank you for such wonderful memories.
My daughter now has a daughter of her own and went looking for a copy and learned it was out of print. She found a used copy on-line and when it arrived she found the spine was old and dry and the pages were coming loose. She scanned it and I am now n th eprocess of printing and laminating each page to make a copy my granddaughter can actually use.
Wuggie Norple is a wonderful story and more than worth the effort. Thank you again for giving my family such fond memories and for the future memories we will have!
David Skidmore
Charlotte, MI USA
Maybe we can make a Wuggie Norple e-book by and by. Meanwhile, I applaud and am flattered by your home-brew book-making.
September 27, 2012
Dear Daniel Pinkwater,
My name is Richard Coldwell Hilscher ll. I am in seventh grade at Boothbay Region Elementary School, which is in Maine. I enjoy math, science, reading, snowboarding, singing, dancing, playing the drums, playing the guitar, acting, jumping on the trampoline, sleeping, and writing. I am extremely short, being only 55%u201D. My best friend would probably be Jay Robert Hasch.
If you already read Jay%u2019s email you would know that we both enjoyed your book, The Neddiad. We both read it for a school project. The best part was when the fat space cops came because I was actually nervous for Neddie. I also liked it when they were on the plane and Sandor Eucalyptas pulled out the gun because it was exciting.
I only have one question for you. Why were the fat space cops only in one scene? It would have been funny if they were in more than one scene! Thank you so much for writing such an amazing book. I hope you write a sequel! If you do, I think you should make the fat space cops more important. I hope you respond soon!
SIncerely,
Richard Coldwell Hilscher ll
Thanks for the good idea. I could write a book titled Fat Space Cops. Check with your friend about the sequels--three so far.
September 27, 2012
Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
My name is Jay Robert Hasch. I am in the seventh grade and I go to the Boothbay Region Elementary School in Maine. I like playing sports like basketball, baseball, and cross-country. At the time, I am doing cross-country. Already I have come in 11th place in my first meet and fourth place in my second. My team won both meets. You may have already gotten my best friend Richard Coldwell Hilscher II%u2019s letter. If you have not, then I hate to spoil that he is sending one.
I read your book The Neddiad for a school project. It was great! My favorite part was when Neddie went behind the Hermione Hotel at night and swam in the old abandoned pool and then the gigantic turtle rose out of the water and they somehow talked without using words. I also liked the part where Seamus first pulls the French substitution trick and Sandor takes the jellybean.
I have one question, are coming out with a sequel? Thank you for reading my letter. I hope to hear from you soon. Again, the book was really awesome.
Sincerely,
Jay Robert Hasch
Sequels, (sort of) to The Neddiad: The Yggyssey, Adventures of a Cat Whiskered Girl, Bushman Lives (coming out next month, but you can read it for free on this website). Boothbay, Maine is a cool place.
Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
I am a humongous fan of yours. I discovered you a little more than a year ago, and you have been the unchanging top of my favourite authors list ever since. When I saw that you went to Bard College, I started mentally freaking out. I go to a Music Prep program at the Conservatory, playing viola and sometimes the double bass (the instruments that are played by the weirdest orchestra members.)
My personal favourite of yours is “The Neddiad”, I believe. I love how your writing can be absurd, creepy and heart warming at the same time. When I read “The Hoboken Chicken Emergency” I was feeling so sorry for Henrietta.
I really like the articles in the newspaper about how they messed up the folk tale from “Borgel” to put in the New York State Standardized tests. I wish I had been in that grade! What’s so unusual about eggplants? I am very happy to know that someone important considers those test “Non Sensical”. I have taken them for three years, and I think they’re non sensical too!
I have one question for you: Do you talk as goofy as you write? Because that would be awesome.
Thanks for being the best author in the history of the Universe,
Holmes S.
I am not the best author in the history of the universe. Actually, and you can take this seriously, I am a 2nd rate author. That is no bad thing, and comparatively uncommon. I agree with you about The Neddiad. It got less attention than the book that followed it, which was not as good. This did not surprise me. The book which followed that one was better, but not as good as The Neddiad, and the one just coming out, Bushman Lives, may be as good as--I still haven't decided. As Gulley Jimson said, """"You have to know when you succeed, and when you fail...and why."""" It took me a while to learn to write goofy.
I freaked out mentally myself when I went to Bard College. That Bard College no longer exists, in the same way that you are not the same person you were when you wrote your post to this website.
No, I am not going to tell you who Gulley Jimson is. I will only say the movie is better than the book, which is unusual.
DP,
My parents read me your children's books incessantly, we listened to you on NPR, and got through family vacations with your books on tape. To this day my mother says "It's a lovely color" whenever anyone gets a new car, and if a family member is given dirty silverware it is unanimously agreed up that it must be wildebeest guts. So, adding your eccentric legacy to my college experience was a thrill.
When I decided I was going to attend Bard College I did what any high schooler would do, I wikipedia'd Bard and it's celebrity alumni (it's a really great way to distinguish your college amongst your high school classmates, particularly when you are attending a tiny, weird Liberal Arts college in a town with three names). While I must admit that I name dropped the Beastie Boys to my peers more frequently than I mentioned Daniel Pinkwater, this realization that you were a Bard alum was the beginning of a queer game I began to play over the next four years.
As I would drive back and forth between my hometown of Philadelphia and Annandale-on-Hudson I would pick out mansions, houses, fruit stands, and overpasses and say to myself, "Now THAT is where Daniel Pinkwater lives!" and let out a sigh of relief. Now I'm unsure as to whether you even live in the Hudson Valley, but what this game did was reassure me that I could continue to be the quirky/weird/off-color and almost every synonym for "creepy" self I had developed into, that I had chosen a community that admired these attributes, and that one day I would join the wild group of Bard alumni who have given Bard its great name and reputation.
You were out of town when I invited you on behalf of the Class of 2011 to be our Alumni speaker at senior dinner. I still hope to see you live in the flesh someday and I appreciate your ghost companionship.
xoxo
Hannah Becker
Bard 2011
The Bard College I went to was a completely different place from the Bard College you went to. This would be true if you had written to me in 1972, 1982, 1992, or now, (as you have.) It was the perfect place for me, and no doubt some others. Still others were poorly served there. I don't get the idea that there's a special tradition, or the production of a certain type of graduate, connected with a place with transient students, relatively transient faculty, and especially one that has always been small, often was in financial peril and often needed to resort to expedients to keep the doors open. The class I arrived with was a product of the state of things just then, the real or imagined reputation of the college that brought us there, who happened to be teaching there at the time, and the talent of a director of admissions who had a gift for attracting interesting kids. We had the place to ourselves for a week before the other students returned, (the precursor of the ""reading and thinking"" program that Bard had later. Ours might have been called ""drinking and smooching."") We bonded. We were a good class. We did good things. I think the same group would have flourished at any college. I hope the Bard you went to did right by you, and was even better than the one I went to. I would not want anyone to apply to Bard just because you and I went there. (Yes, the converted fruit stand is my house.)
I'm a life long fan. I'm 41 and would still put The Snarkout Boys and the Avacado of Death on my desert Island list. I'm bummed you felt the need to be overtly political and shill for a politician. If you just couldn't withstand the urge, I wish you would've went Libertarian! -KM
It was a service to my readers, not a urge. I'm not emotional about this sort of thing--if anyone is, they should lie down until the feeling passes.
Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
I just wanted to thank you for writing The Big Orange Splot! As a child of immigrants, it helped me to feel better about being different and encouraged me to share my dreams in a joyful way. I received a copy of your book in kindergarten and that same copy sits on my bookshelf almost 27 years later. I have always had an interest in improving my community–whether it is working with a tenant's union, community organization or the environmental non-profit I currently work for. Maybe I owe it all to Mr. Plumbean–the first community organizer I ever read about!
Thank you again and I am glad to see you're backing our president!
I wish I could take credit for intentionally putting all those vitamins in things I write. The fact is, I'm totally concerned with making a story, getting the words right, in some cases the illustrations. I have to admit that I wasn't thinking about someone feeling better about being different, or becoming a public-spirited citizen when I wrote The Big Orange Splot. I don't really understand how it works, but I've experienced it myself--good art helps make good things happen in the lives of people who enjoy it. Or possibly it stimulates the good things already within them. So, thank you for reading in a creative and constructive way.
