Hogan - The agony and the eggplant

This book made available by the Internet Archive.

To Jeremy ,

who many years ago brought home a book with the curious title, Yobgorgle, Mystery Monster of Lake Ontario, and asked me to read it to him

Acknowledgments

I first wish to thank Daniel Pinkwater for his generosity in patiently answering my numerous questions about his work. Our communication was primarily by email, over a period of about nine months from the time this manuscript was conceived until, after much labor, it was finally delivered to my wonderful editor, Patty Campbell. Those fecund responses from the Master himself are perhaps the best passages in this book, whose title and subtitle must also be credited to Mr. Pinkwater. He may have been surprised that we actually used a title suggestion that he probably meant as a joke. Perhaps he should have heeded the wise proverb: one mans baby may be another mans eggplant. Or one mans eggplant may be another mans agony. Or his avocado. Or something like that.

I would also like to thank my eighth grade teacher, Sister Mary David, affectionately known as The Beaver, who used to tell us, Every dog has his day and every cat has two afternoons.

Finally, 1 want to thank the University of Michigan for providing me the excellent liberal arts education which equipped me with all the big words 1 have scattered nonchalantly throughout this learned disquisition, and Eastern Michigan University for being, seriously, a great place to work.

Permission to quote from email correspondence between D. Pinkwater and W. Hogan granted by Daniel Pinkwater.

Permission to quote from Hoboken Fish and Chicago Whistle (Princeton, N.J.: XLibris, 1999) granted by Daniel Pinkwater.

Permission to quote from material posted by Daniel Pinkwater to The (Sort oj) Official Daniel Pinkwater Website graciously granted by Mr. Pinkwater.

That site has since been renamed The P-Zone: Ailerons Unofficial Pinkwater Website and relocated to .

See also The Official Pinkwater Page .

Chronology

1941 Daniel Manus Pinkwater born 15 November in Memphis, Tennessee.

1943 Family relocates to Chicago.

1950 Family moves to Los Angeles.

1955 Family returns to Chicago.

1959 Enrolls in Bard College, New York.

1964 Graduates from Bard with B. A. in Art.

1965 Completes sculpture apprenticeship with David Nyvall. Rents studio loft in Hoboken, New Jersey to begin career as artist. Teaches art and art therapy at several institutions in the New York City area.

1967 Travels around the world, visiting Africa and Japan.

1969 Marries Jill Miriam Schutz, 12 October.

1970 Publishes first book: The Terrible Roar

1975 Wingman (First intermediate book.)

1976 Lizard Music (First novel, receives ALA Notable Book award.)

1977 Fat Men From Space

The Hoboken Chicken Emergency

1978 The Last Guru

1979 Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars Yobgorgle, Myste/y Monster of Lake Ontario

1980 Moves to Hyde Park, New York, in the Hudson Valley.

The Magic Moscow

1981 Attila the Pun

The Worms of Kukumlima

1982 Slaves of Spiegel

The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death Young Adult Novel

1984 The Snarkout Boys and the Baconburg Horror

1985 Young Adults

1986 Begins decade-long stint as a regular commentator, National Public Radios All Things Considered.

1990 Borgel

1996 Begins broadcasting reviews of childrens books on NPRs Weekend Edition Saturday with Scott Simon.

XI

Xll

Chronology

1997 5 Novels

1998 The Education of Robert Nifkin Introduces Chimvag Theater.

Chapter 1

The Life of the Master

Daniel Pinkwater tells us that his family was not especially prosperous at the time of his birth on November 15, 1941. The author recounts a family story in which he appeared in the living room, a toddler not yet two years old, holding by the tails a brace of dead Norway rats, one in each hand. 1 must have taken them out of traps in the kitchen. We had plenty of rats and not a great deal else. 1 His father was born in Poland shortly before the turn of the century, and emigrated to the United States as a young man, soon after the First World War ended in late 1918. He arrived in New York with a little more than two dollars in his pocket, and migrated across the country, working at a variety of odd jobs.

One standard reference work describes Pinkwater as the son of Philip (a ragman) and Fay (a chorus girl); maiden name, Hoffman. The directory entry continues, Politics: Taoist. Religion: Republican. 2 We might mention at this point that most of the biographical information about Pinkwaterin the directory entry above, in the present book, indeed in every published sourcehas been provided by the author himself. It is more certain to entertain than to inform.

Sometimes Pinkwater attributes the unresolved mysteries about his origins to other family members. He once told a Welsh correspondent, My mother claimed to have been bom in Cardiff, Walesbut she was notably unreliable. 1 was there once, and didnt see anybody 1 recognized. Unless, of course, I have the wrong town in mind. Cardiff is on the sea, and has a big castle, right? 3

When asked if his mother were still alive, and if she had ever worked outside the home, Pinkwater replied, Mother not living. Was a gun-moll during the 1920s. 4 Pinkwater had two half brothers and two half sisters, some of whom are briefly mentioned in his autobiographical essays and in some of his interviews.

When Daniel was about two years old, the family relocated from Memphis, Tennessee to Chicago, to a big apartment, without rats, a half-block from Lake Shore Drive. There they resided for about six years.

Chapter 1

I've often wondered who and what I might have become had I grown up living there, had I gone through elementary school and high school living in one place, knowing the same people, the same streets.

But it wasnt like that for me, or the rest of my family. My father liked to move about. By the time I was ready for college, we had changed domiciles thirteen times, swapped cities six times, and I had attended ten schools/