From: Connie Rockman <connie.rock_at_snet.net>
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:22:25 -0400

So sorry to hear of Sid Fleischman's death. On his 90th birthday this week, he was featured on Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac ... a fine tribute as very few children's writers appear there. And who knew about that John Wayne movie?

March 16th - It's the birthday of the children's writer who said, "I sometimes think I was born to set a bad example." That's Sid Fleischman, (books by this author) born in Brooklyn (1920). His family moved to San Diego when he was a toddler, and when he was in fifth grade he decided to become a magician. After high school, he toured with vaudeville, worked as a journalist, fought in WWII. When he was 19, he published a book about magic tricks, Between Cocktails (1939). He made a living writing mysteries and adventure novels, and John Wayne's movie company bought the film rights to his novel Blood Alley and asked Fleischman to write the screenplay. It was made into a movie starring Wayne and Lauren Bacall in 1955.

He said: "My young children led me into writing children's books. They didn't understand what I did for a living. Other fathers, they learned, left home in the morning and returned at the end of the day. I was always around the house. I decided to clear up the mystery and wrote a book just for them." So he wrote Mr. Mysterious and Company (1962), and he went on to write many books for children, including his most famous, The Whipping Boy (1986). It's set in 18th-century Europe and is the story of two boys. One is a horrible prince, and the other is his servant whose job it is to be whipped whenever the prince misbehaves, since it is a crime to hit the prince. The book follows the adventures of the two boys after the prince runs away, bringing his servant with him. The Whipping Boy won the Newbery Medal and was made into a movie. Fleischman has published more than 60 books for children and adults.
Received on Fri 19 Mar 2010 02:22:25 PM CDT