Eliza Stewart
July 6, 1999
Post #885 – 19990706
Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
Your books have made a tremendous impact on my life. I would express my feelings here on the Net but I feel the only truly adequate response would have to be an interpretive dance or something. Thank you so much for inspiring me to be an individual, to draw, to write things down, to dance, to dream things. I will never forget the feeling I had reading your books when I was young and the incredible sense that it was okay to be weird and possible to be a weird adult. I hope you understand what I mean. I teach seventh grade now, and I still read your books all the time, particularly to remind myself of a more pleasant world (heh) and to avoid the unconscious automatic use of the word “butt” in polite conversation.
Sincerely, Eliza Stewart
Daniel replies:
Sounds like a Feiffer cartoon, ""A Dance to Pinkwater."" If the books were/are important to you, your seventh graders will sense that, and maybe take a look at them. That's a pretty good expression of appreciation to this author. As to weird...some may call it that. I call it interesting. I didn't plan it this way...I didn't plan anything...but I wind up with readers I like quite a lot. (Some authors don't). This may account, in part, for my sunny disposition.