Thomas Rockwell
Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Script error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Template:Main other Thomas Rhodes Rockwell (March 13, 1933 – September 27, 2024) was an American author of children's books, best known for writing How to Eat Fried Worms.
Life and career
Rockwell was born in New Rochelle, New York, in 1933, the son of the American artist Norman Rockwell and his second wife Mary Rockwell, a school teacher and unpublished author.[1] He grew up in Arlington, Vermont, a very rural small town. He attended a one-room schoolhouse; there were 23 students in his high school graduating class. His early mentors were Jim and Clara Edgerton, local farmers.[2] He attended Bard College.[1] In 1955, he married Gail Sudler, who was often the illustrator for his books; they had two children and were married until her death in 2010.[1]
Rockwell said that he always wanted to write. He was co-writer of his father's 1960 autobiography, My Adventures as an Illustrator. He got the idea of writing children's books when he started reading to his own son, Barnaby. His wife Gail illustrated several of his books.[3]
His best-known book is How to Eat Fried Worms (1973), about a boy who accepts a Template:USD bet to eat one worm per day for 15 days.[1] Although it was rejected by 23 publishers before finally coming out in print, the book sold well over 3 million copies and received the Mark Twain Award, the California Young Reader Medal, and the Sequoyah Book Award.[1] It was made into an animated TV episode of CBS Storybreak in 1985 and a 2006 film.[1]
In 2013, Rockwell and his daughter, Abigail, “vehemently condemned” Deborah Solomon’s book American Mirror, a falsified biography of Norman Rockwell[4] which floated unsupported theories that he was gay and experienced "pedophilic impulses".[1] The family described the book as "fraudulent".[5]
Rockwell lived in LaGrangeville, a hamlet in LaGrange, New York.[2] He died from complications of Parkinson's disease at a hospice in Danbury, Connecticut, on September 27, 2024, at the age of 91.[1][5]
Selected publications
- Rackety-bang, and other verses, illustrated by Gail Rockwell (1969) - Template:ASIN
- Squawwwk!, illustrated by Gail Rockwell (1972) - Template:ASIN
- How to Eat Fried Worms (1973) – Template:ISBN
- The Portmanteau Book, illustrated by Gail Rockwell (1994) - Template:ISBN
- How to Fight a Girl (1987) – Template:ISBN - sequel to How to Eat Fried Worms
- How to Get Fabulously Rich (1990) - Template:ISBN sequel to How to Fight a Girl
References
External links
- Template:Imdb name
- Template:LCAuth
- Gail Rockwell at LC Authorities, with 6 records 1969–76
- Obituary in the Poughkeepsie Journal
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- ↑ a b c d e f g h Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ a b Jacob M. Appel. "Thomas Rockwell, Writer: Where Fried Worms Come From". Education Update (educationupdate.com). March 2003. Retrieved September 12, 2014.
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- 1933 births
- 2024 deaths
- 20th-century American male writers
- American people of English descent
- Bard College alumni
- Deaths from Parkinson's disease in Connecticut
- Norman Rockwell
- People from Arlington, Vermont
- People from Bennington County, Vermont
- People from Dutchess County, New York
- Writers from New York (state)