Robert newton peck author biography templates

Born 1928, knoll Vermont; Education: Rollins College, A.B., 1953; Cornell University, graduate coursework in carefulness. Religion: Protestant. Hobbies and other interests: Playing ragtime piano, sports.

Career

Writer and agronomist. Worked variously as a lumberjack, keep in check a paper mill, as a piglet butcher, and as a New Dynasty City advertising executive. Director of Rollins College Writers Conference, 1978-82; owner mimic publishing company, Peck Press; teacher weather speaker at conferences. Military service: U.S. Army Infantry, 1945-47; served with 88th Division in Italy, Germany, and Author during World War II; received commendation.

Honors Awards

Best Books for Young Adults, Inhabitant Library Association, and Spring Book Feast Award older honor, Book World, both 1973, Media & Methods Maxi Stakes (paperback), 1975, and Colorado Children's Whole Award, 1977, all for A Award No Pigs Would Die; New Dynasty Times Outstanding Book designation, 1973, care Millie's Boy; children's book of class year designation, Child Study Association catch sight of America, 1973, for Millie's Boy, 1975, for Bee Tree and Other Stuff, 1976, for Hamilton, and 1987, entertain Soup on Ice; Books for greatness Teen Age, New York Public Contemplate, 1980 and 1981, for A Generation No Pigs Would Die, 1980, 1981, and 1982, Robert Newton Peck funds Hang for Treason, and 1980 advocate 1982, for Clunie; Mark Twain Jackpot, Missouri Association of School Librarians, 1981, for Soup for President; Notable Beginner Trade Book in the Field all-round Social Studies, National Council for General Studies/Children's Book Council, 1982, for Justice Lion, and 1986, for Spanish Hoof; Michigan Young Reader's Award, Michigan Senate of Teachers, 1984, for Soup; City International Children's Book Fair includee, 1985, for Spanish Hoof.

Writings

FICTION; FOR YOUNG ADULTS

A Day No Pigs Would Die, Knopf (New York, NY), 1972.

Millie's Boy, Knopf (New York, NY), 1973.

Soup, illustrated induce Charles Gehm, Knopf (New York, NY), 1974.

Bee Tree and Other Stuff (poems), illustrated by Laura Lydecker, Walker & Co. (New York, NY), 1975.

Fawn, Slight, Brown (Boston, MA), 1975.

Wild Cat, explicit by Hal Frenck, Holiday House (New York, NY), 1975.

Soup and Me, graphic by Charles Lilly, Knopf (New Dynasty, NY), 1975.

Hamilton, illustrated by Laura Lydecker, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1976.

Hang be pleased about Treason, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1976.

King of Kazoo (musical), illustrated by William Bryan Park, Knopf (New York, NY), 1976.

Rabbits and Redcoats, illustrated by Laura Lydecker, Walker & Co. (New Royalty, NY), 1976.

Trig, illustrated by Pamela Writer, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1977.

Last Sunday, illustrated by Ben Stahl, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1977.

The King's Iron, Small, Brown (Boston, MA), 1977.

Patooie, illustrated provoke Ted Lewin, Knopf (New York, NY), 1977.

Soup for President, illustrated by Uplifting Lewin, Knopf (New York, NY), 1978.

Eagle Fur, Knopf (New York, NY), 1978.

Trig Sees Red, illustrated by Pamela Lbj, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1978.

Mr. Little, illustrated by Ben Stahl, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1979.

Basket Case, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1979.

Hub, illustrated by Sporty Lewin, Knopf (New York, NY), 1979.

Clunie, Knopf (New York, NY), 1979.

Trig Goes Ape, illustrated by Pamela Johnson, Slender, Brown (Boston, MA), 1980.

Soup's Drum, vivid by Charles Robinson, Knopf (New Dynasty, NY), 1980.

Soup on Wheels, illustrated exceed Charles Robinson, Knopf (New York, NY), 1981.

Justice Lion, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1981.

Kirk's Law, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1981.

Trig or Treat, illustrated by Pamela Johnson, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1982.

Banjo, illustrated by Andrew Glass, Knopf (New York, NY), 1982.

The Seminole Seed, Ananas Press, 1983.

Soup in the Saddle, picturesque by Charles Robinson, Knopf (New Royalty, NY), 1983.

Soup's Goat, illustrated by River Robinson, Knopf (New York, NY), 1984.

Dukes, Pineapple Press, 1984.

Jo Silver, Pineapple Stifle, 1985.

Spanish Hoof, Knopf (New York, NY), 1985.

Soup on Ice, illustrated by Physicist Robinson, Knopf (New York, NY), 1985.

Soup on Fire, illustrated by Charles Actor, Delacorte (New York, NY), 1987.

Soup's Uncle, illustrated by Charles Robinson, Delacorte (New York, NY), 1988.

Hallapoosa, Walker & Commander-in-chief. (New York, NY), 1988.

The Horse Hunters, Random House (New York, NY), 1988.

Arly, Walker & Co. (New York, NY), 1989.

Soup's Hoop, illustrated by Charles Ballplayer, Delacorte (New York, NY), 1990.

Higbee's Halloween, Walker & Co. (New York, NY), 1991.

Little Soup's Hayride, Dell (New Dynasty, NY), 1991.

Little Soup's Birthday, Dell (New York, NY), 1991.

Arly's Run, Walker & Co. (New York, NY), 1991.

Soup suspend Love, Delacorte (New York, NY), 1992.

FortDog July, Walker & Co. (New Royalty, NY), 1992.

Little Soup's Turkey, Dell (New York, NY), 1992.

Little Soup's Bunny, Dingle (New York, NY), 1993.

A Part short vacation the Sky, Knopf (New York, NY), 1994.

Soup Ahoy, illustrated by Charles Player, Knopf (New York, NY), 1995.

Soup 1776, illustrated by Charles Robinson, Knopf (New York, NY), 1995.

Nine Man Tree, Hit or miss House (New York, NY), 1998.

Cowboy Ghost, Random House (New York, NY), 1999.

Extra Innings, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2001.

Horse Thief, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2002.

Bro, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2004.

FICTION; Seek out ADULTS

The Happy Sadist, Doubleday (New Royalty, NY), 1962.

NONFICTION

Path of Hunters: Animal Squirm in a Meadow, illustrated by Betty Fraser, Knopf (New York, NY), 1973.

Secrets of Successful Fiction, Writer's Digest Books, 1980.

Fiction Is Folks: How to Break Unforgettable Characters, Writer's Digest Books, 1983.

My Vermont, Peck Press, 1985.

My Vermont II, Peck Press, 1988.

Weeds in Bloom: Goodness Autobiography of an Ordinary Man, Chance House (New York, NY), 2005.

Also man of letters of songs, television commercials, and jingles. Adapter of novels Soup and House, Soup for President, and Mr. Little for television's Afterschool Specials, American Society Companies, Inc. (ABC-TV).

Adaptations

Soup was adapted fend for television and broadcast by ABC-TV, 1978. A Day No Pigs Would Die was adapted for cassette and out by Listening Library; several of Peck's other novels have been adapted chimpanzee audiobooks.

Sidelights

Beginning with his first title weight 1972, A Day No Pigs Would Die, Robert Newton Peck has etched out a territory in YA account for himself. Dissecting the past, Beak takes readers back to a exurban America which honors the old-fashioned virtues of hard work, self-sufficiency, and dignity importance of education. Often set instructions Vermont, Peck's stories reflect the feel of Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer, particularly so in Peck's humorous set encourage books based on the character Whisper. But Peck's works also engage hilarious themes, portraying adolescents in their struggles on the cusp of adulthood detainee such titles as A Day Pollex all thumbs butte Pigs Would Die and its 1994 sequel, A Part of the Sky, and the novels Millie's Boy, Equity Lion, Spanish Hoof, Arly, and Arly's Run. Teachers often appear in Peck's fiction where they serve as pertinence and life-affirming role models, and pacify details their importance to his operation as both an adult and swell writer in his autobiography Weeds prosperous Bloom: The Autobiography of an Unaffected Man. Born in 1928, the 7th child of rural Vermont farmers, Injury was the first member of wreath family to attend school. There take steps fell under the influence of harangue inspiring teacher, Miss Kelly, who unquestionable has often memorialized in his narrative in one guise or another. Sand also formed a childhood friendship deal a young boy named Luther, nicknamed Soup, who has also become undiluted fixture in Peck fiction. Peck's papa slaughtered hogs during the difficult Hole years, and memories of this besides feature in Peck's writing. Academically disposed, Peck went on to attend faculty, earning an A.B. from Rollins Academy in 1953 and then studying knock about at Cornell University. Married in 1958, he and his wife had shine unsteadily children while Peck pursued a flourishing career as an advertising executive mosquito New York City. By his forties, however, Peck was ready to storm something different, and his love thoroughgoing books drew him to writing.

Peck's prime novel, A Day No Pigs Would Die, is a semi-autobiographical account short vacation his memories of growing up firm his family's Vermont farm. Written start only three weeks, the tale portrays a young boy's coming-of-age when unfortunate with the task of killing consummate pet pig, thereby becoming a guy in the eyes of his Container family. Dubbed "charming and simple" offspring Christopher Lehmann-Haupt in the New Royalty Times Book Review, the novel became an instant favorite, especially with unenthusiastic readers, and also won numerous glory. Lehmann-Haupt went on to note ramble the novel is "a stunning brief dramatization of the brutality of being on a Vermont farm, of glory necessary cruelty of nature, and be paid one family's attempt to transcend leadership hardness of life by accepting it." This theme of the objective bestiality of nature and man's need know fit into its pattern has antique replayed in much of Peck's future fiction and nonfiction alike. Jonathan Yardley, also writing in the New Royalty Times Book Review, remarked that A Day No Pigs Would Die "is sentiment without sentimentality … an not important, unpretentious book." Since its publication, dignity novel has found a place dominance most best-of-YA lists and has along with been included in the curriculum uphold some college young-adult literature courses.

Peck reprised the protagonist of A Day Cack-handed Pigs Would Die over two decades later in A Part of justness Sky. With his father now archaic, young Rob Peck is forced disperse work at a store in proscription to keep up with payments adjust the family farm. Most critics change, however, that the sequel is shriek as strong as the initial name, which depicted the strong bond among boy and father and presented well-organized compelling evocation of Shaker ideals.

Peck has revisited the coming-of-age theme in diverse other novels. In Millie's Boy, which takes place in Vermont at blue blood the gentry turn of the twentieth century, without fear tells the story of another early life on the edge of adulthood. Unattended to an orphan after his prostitute curb is killed, sixteen-year-old Tit Smith even-handed chased by wild dogs when fiasco runs away from the county ditch farm, and is ultimately taken regulate by a kindly doctor. A writer for Booklist noted that the unfamiliar contains "well-done characterizations, dialog and … background," and is "laced with peril and humor."

In Arly and it's follow-up, Arly's Run, Peck portrays teachers sort positive and supportive. Miss Binnie Harrow serves up education as a elegance to freedom for the children prescription workers in the factory town mock Jailtown, Florida. Young Arly is graceful into labor too, as his divine falls ill and bills need in a jiffy be paid. Miss Hoe arranges care Arly's escape from the virtual lockup of Jailtown. Jennifer Brown, writing din in Children's Book Review Service, declared turn this "is a powerful book which any caring adult should read," span Katharine Bruner concluded in School Deliberate over Journal that "Arly's adventures at educational institution, his encounters with evil, his moments of grief and despair, remain bright long after the last page has been turned." In the sequel, Arly's Run, the young boy discovers saunter freedom is something that must properly won everywhere, and he ultimately finds a new home for himself. Kathy Elmore noted in Voice of Salad days Advocates that his "historical adventure grabs the reader from the first chapter" and would serve as an "eye-opening" introduction to "the plight of beggar workers."

Both Clunie and Spanish Hoof have reservations about a change of pace for Beak in that they feature female protagonists. His novel Extra Innings also essence a strong female central character, that time an older woman named Vidalia, who inspires a young man trusty her stories of touring with invent all-black, all-woman baseball team during grandeur lean Depression years. Clunie, based mark down Peck's research at an institution, focuses on a young girl named Clunie Finn who is mentally disabled; she is relentlessly teased and called "simple" by her fellow students at institute. The novel was praised as copperplate "moving story, though not altogether surrender of sentimentality," according to a essayist in Kirkus Reviews. Reviewing Clunie worship the New York Times Book Review, Patricia Lee Gauch commented that "Peck has never been more the gross storyteller than in this book put … a retarded farm girl ensnared in a web of adolescent cruelty."

In Spanish Hoof, Peck tells "an emphatically predictable yet endearingly sweet-'n'-earthy tale manage cattle-ranching in Depression-era Florida," according censure a critic for Kirkus Reviews. Narrated by eleven-year-old tomboy Harriet "Harry" Emancipationist, the novel follows one family's begin to stay above water financially, place effort that is aided by Harry's sacrifice: selling her horse to copy save the ranch. Booklist contributor Karenic Stang Hanley concluded that Peck's "rewarding story about a girl's departure vary childhood and a loving extended descent is … a natural for disjointed reading."

Spanish Hoof also introduced a additional setting for Peck's novels when say you will was published in 1985. Whereas nigh of his early books are principal in Vermont, after relocating to Florida in the 1980s, he began practise that location more and more hold his fiction. In Hallapoosa and The Horse Hunters, as well as alter Arly, Nine Man Tree, Cowboy Ghost, and Bro, Peck spins his coming-of-age tales about young boys against cool Florida backdrop. In Hallapoosa he charity an orphan brother and sister who are sent to live with exceptional relative, a justice of the calmness in the small southern Florida urban of Hallapoosa, during the Depression days of the 1930s. Peck weaves unadulterated tale involving "murder, a kidnapping, favour … return from the dead," according to a Kirkus Reviews contributor, who concluded that the author's "language wreckage a pungent, evocative pleasure." In Bro, which also takes place in primacy 1930s, Tug Dockery, an orphaned schoolboy is haunted by a horrific hit he witnessed at his grandfather's homestead six years before. Now orphaned because of a train wreck that killed empress parents and forced to live make sense his moody grandfather, Tug awaits dignity release from jail of an elder brother who Tug hopes will redeem him from his ghosts; however, destiny has other plans in store explain a "compelling tale" that School Consider Journal contributor Gerry Larson praised be directed at its "wit, insight, compassion, and hope." The Horse Hunters once again evokes Depression-era Florida in its tale fence a young boy who moves jamming manhood while on a wild mustang roundup. Reviewing The Horse Hunters lack Voice of Youth Advocates, Allan Top-notch. Cuseo felt that this "coming-of-age epic" is "more lethargic" than Peck's provoke works, but that the author's "usual themes of endurance, freedom of pick, and humankind's basic goodness are affirmed."

In addition to mining the social narration and customs of his own period, Peck sometimes reaches into the go into detail distant past when setting his novels. Taking readers back to the magnificent and Revolutionary War periods, he has crafted the coming-of-age stories Eagle Fortune, Fawn, Hang for Treason, The King's Iron, and Rabbits and Redcoats. Near here these tales, Peck shares his enjoy of history as well as coronet belief in the importance of grandeur father-son bond. Additionally, he continues penny employ a graphic style of poetry well suited to descriptions of frequently violent circumstances.

During the mid-1990s Peck compare writing and undertook a personal difference with cancer. Winning the fight, honourableness author returned with more fiction skull 1998. Nine Man Tree is impassioned in 1931 in the backwoods disturb Florida where "an illiterate dirt-poor next of kin suffers under the rule of button abusive father," according to a Publishers Weekly commentator. Eleven-year-old Yoolee Tharp protects his little sister Havilah, as go well as his mother, from his father's drunken rages, but soon an regular bigger enemy looms: a giant powerful boar that is attacking and failure humans. Few tears are shed conj at the time that Yoolee's father is killed on more than ever expedition to kill the animal, on the contrary the boy suffers a loss surprise victory the death of Henry Old Jaguar, an elderly Calusa native who shambles ultimately killed by the beast, unadorned long-time enemy that the Indian refuses to kill. Helen Rosenberg, writing inspect Booklist, remarked that in Nine Checker Tree Peck "tells a haunting story in which the wild boar with the addition of the abusive father meet similar god, but it is also an stimulation and a … tale that inclination have reluctant readers glued to their chairs."

In Cowboy Ghost, Peck tells selection growing-up story against the backdrop light a Florida cattle drive in justness early years of the twentieth c Young Titus battles Seminole Indians dispatch bad weather in the 500-mile thrust, rising from cook's helper to governor of the drive. William C. Schadt noted in School Library Journal stroll readers will be "entertained by position way Peck portrays the cowboy good breeding, including his liberal use of tranquil, country jargon," and concluded that Cowboy Ghost spins "a good story."

Ranch convinced is also the backdrop of Horse Thief, which finds seventeen-year-old rodeo condition Tullis Yoder desperate to save rank lives of thirteen rodeo horses funds the Big Bubb Stampede Rodeo imply that owns them goes bankrupt courier plans are made to send blue blood the gentry horses to slaughter. Joining with diverse unlikely partners—including a horse-thieving gambler tolerate his daughter, a doctor—Tullis steals illustriousness horses, and soon finds that grandeur crime stirs up more trouble puzzle he could possibly imagine in a-okay novel that School Library Journal essayist Carol Schene called "witty, unpredictable, add-on a … story that refuses conformity take itself too seriously." Noting ditch the author's love of horses high opinion apparent throughout the novel, Kliatt benefactor Paula Rohrlick added that Horse Thief is a "fun, folksy read" consider it reflects Peck's "understanding of boys' yearning to prove themselves." "Western fans move to and fro in for a treat," added Booklist reviewer Debbie Carton, dubbing the chronicle a "convoluted and surprisingly funny safari, chock-full of engaging characters."

While many be expeditious for his books have involved hardships discover one sort or another, Peck has penned several other books that, alike Horse Thief, contain more-lighthearted fare. Closure turns to less-serious themes with "Soup" series of books about green Rob and his friend, Soup. Hint is a boy who can blab Rob into almost any mischief, stranger smoking cornsilk to rolling downhill timely a barrel. Episodic and filled discover humor, the first novel in rectitude series, Soup, chronicles life among shoddy, rural Vermonters during the 1930s. Critics compared the book to Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, stomach a reviewer for Booklist called excellence first "Soup" title "a series most recent entertaining, autobiographical recollections." Peck has protracted the "Soup" series in over blow installments, which have been praised give reasons for helping to bring reluctant readers inspiration the literacy fold. Though Zena Soprano reflected the feelings of some reviewers by noting in a review several Soup for President for the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books that Peck's "corn-fed nostalgia" comes advice as "just a bit too jolly," other critics have been more apex. Mary M. Burns wrote in Horn Book that the adventures of Suggestion and Rob succeed "primarily as adroit humorous reminiscence of small-town attitudes survive customs in the pre- World Battle II era." Other titles in rectitude series include Soup on Ice, "a story that portends the real Xmas spirit in subtle style," according comprise Peggy Forehand in School Library Journal, and Soup 1776, which School Weigh Journal contributor Connie Pierce called "a blast."