Dan Greenburg

Daniel Greenburg (June 20, 1936 – December 18, 2023) was an American writer, humorist, and journalist. His 73 books have been published in 20 languages in 24 countries.

His books for adults include the non-fiction books How to Be a Jewish Mother: A Very Lovely Training Manual (1964), How to Make Yourself Miserable: Another Vital Training Manual (1966, with Marcia Jacobs), and How to Avoid Love and Marriage (1983, with Suzanne O'Malley) – all satirical self-help books – as well as the novels Love Kills (1978), Exes (1990), and Fear Itself (2014).

Greenburg wrote four series of children's books, The Zack Files, Secrets of Dripping Fang, Maximum Boy, and Weird Planet.

Writing career

Daniel Greenburg was born on June 20, 1936, in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Samuel (an artist) and Leah Greenburg.

Greenburg studied design at the University of Illinois. While there, he read Catcher in the Rye, which inspired him to become a writer. He received his B.A. degree from the University of Illinois and his M.A. degree from the University of California in Los Angeles.

His first piece of professional writing was "3 Bears in Search of an Author", a retelling of the same story in the voices of J.D. Salinger, Ernest Hemingway, and James Joyce. The piece was published in Esquire magazine, and Esquire commissioned a sequel: "Hansel and Gretel" in the styles of Vladimir Nabokov, Jack Kerouac and Samuel Beckett.

After obtaining his M.A. in industrial design, he continued to live in Los Angeles. Dissatisfied with industrial design, he spent three years working at advertising agencies. Meanwhile, his old editor at Esquire, Ralph Ginzburg, had started a new national magazine called Eros and convinced Greenburg to move to New York and become its managing editor. In New York, Greenburg began to write a satirical non-fiction book entitled How to Be a Jewish Mother, which became the bestselling non-fiction book of 1965.

In September 1969, he published Porno-Graphics: The Shame of our Art Museums, a now scarce and far-out-of-print heavily illustrated book with lift-up vinyl page covers, pull-outs, and copies of famous paintings. In a retrospective interview, Greenburg said, "At the time, I was amused by all the people who were being offended by anything slightly sexual. Usually when something sexual is covered up, it becomes more sexual. I thought it was funny. I had already had some success with a couple of books and Random House said to me 'what else can you do?'"

Greenburg is probably most well known for authoring a handful of very popular series of children's books, although he still also wrote novels for adults (mostly mysteries and thrillers). He also wrote for television and movies, and has been regularly published in Life, Time, The New Yorker, and other national publications.

When asked how he keeps in touch with what kids like in an interview in 2005, he responded: "I visit schools constantly. I talk to kids, I try out ideas on them, and I ask them what they like to read. Both boys and girls tell me they love scary stories and funny stories the best, and the boys tell me they love to be grossed out. I've tried to do all three things in these books." When asked where he gets ideas for his books, he replied: "1) inspiration from adventures I've survived; 2) a funny title I think up first ...; 3) asking myself "What if ...?".

Personal life and death

Greenburg's first wife was film director and author Nora Ephron (1941–2012). After seven years, their marriage ended in an amicable divorce.

His second wife was writer Suzanne O'Malley, whom he married in 1980; they remained married for fifteen years before they separated, eventually divorcing in 1998. With O'Malley, he had a son, Zack O'Malley Greenburg; Dan Greenburg's children's book series The Zack Files was named for him.

Greenburg's third wife was Judith C. Wilson, a children's book author. They resided in Hastings-on-Hudson, [New York].

Greenburg died of complications from a stroke at a hospice in the Bronx, on December 18, 2023, at the age of 87.

Selected works

Books for adults

How to Be a Jewish Mother: A Very Lovely Training Manual (1964)

Kiss My Firm But Pliant Lips (1965)

How to Make Yourself Miserable: Another Vital Training Manual (1966)

Chewsday (1968)

Philly (1969)

Porno-Graphics: The Shame of Our Art Museums (1969)

Scoring (1972)

Something's There: My Adventures in the Occult (1976)

Love Kills (1978)

What Do Women Want? (1982)

How to Avoid Love and Marriage (1983)

True Adventures (1985)

Confessions of a Pregnant Father (1986)

The Nanny (1987)

Exes (1990)

Moses Supposes: The Bible As Told to Dan Greenburg (1997)

Claws (2006)

Books for children

Jumbo the Boy and Arnold the Elephant, illustrated by Susan Perl (Bobbs-Merrill, 1969), picture book

The Bed Who Ran Away from Home, illus. John Wallner (HarperCollins, 1991), picture book

Young Santa, illus. Warren Miller (Viking Press, 1991), chapter book

Claws (Random House, 2006), chapter book

Filmography

Live a Little, Love a Little (1968), based on his novel Kiss My Firm But Pliant Lips

I Could Never Have Sex with Any Man Who Has So Little Regard for My Husband (1973), based on his novel Chewsday

Fore Play (1975), with Bruce Jay Friedman and David Odell

Private Lessons (1981), based on his novel Philly

Private School (1983)

The Guardian (1990), based on his novel The Nanny

Private Lessons II (1993), based on his novel Philly

Dramatic works

Greenburg's plays have been performed on Broadway, off-Broadway, at the American Conservatory Theater, Yale University, and at the Actors Studio, where he was a member of the Playwrights Unit.

Free to Be... You and Me (contributor)

Oh! Calcutta! (1969, 1976)

Arf! and The Great Airplane Snatch (author of one-acts that ran off-Broadway)

The Restaurant (author of one-act play which ran off-Broadway)

Convention (author of one-act play which ran off-Broadway)

How to Be a Jewish Mother (December 1967) (co-author, author of the original book). Stage adaptations of Greenburg's best-selling book have been running for over 30 years; they've been produced in France, Spain, Poland, Israel, Brazil, Holland, Turkey, and Brazil.