I do a lot of my work at Firestone Library at Princeton University. ![]() This will involve a lot of reading and scholarly books and journals and sometimes discussions and scholarly folklorists. "Basically, what I do with every book, is learn everything I can about the genre. In an interview with Language Arts magazine,* he shared some steps of his writing process: ![]() One of his silly books, A Twister of Twists, A Tangler of Tongues: Tongue Twisters, became a bestseller in 1972. Some of the folklore he collected was funny, and some of it was scary. When grant money dried up for those kinds of books, he decided to become a collector and re-teller of folklore for children - sometimes going to libraries to look things up in old books and sometimes getting his stories and jokes from neighborhood kids. But most of his best-known work is certainly not that serious. At the beginning, he wrote about serious social issues - the labor movement, the decay of inner cities, and bridging the gap between the generations. He got started by converting the shed in his backyard into an office. In 1963, Alvin Schwartz quit his steady job to become a full-time freelance writer. Later, his writing and research skills would play an important part in the job he eventually took on to make many types of folklore familiar to young readers. He grew up to become a journalist and also worked as an adjunct English professor. Folklore was just something that was part of his childhood: the games, riddles, rhymes, superstitions and scary stories. Schwartz was survived by his wife and four children.Alvin Schwartz, the writer of many books for children that collected and shared traditions from times past, first became interested in folklore as a child, although at the time he did not think of it as something to study. Schwartz died of lymphoma in Princeton, New Jersey on March 14, 1992, six weeks before his 65th birthday. Some of his other books, such as When I Grew Up Long Ago, were aimed at an older audience, and presented glimpses of life in the United States during the late 19th century and the early 20th century. The series was America's most frequently challenged book (or book series) for library inclusion of 1990-1999. He is best known for the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series, which featured gruesome, nightmarish illustrations by Stephen Gammell. Others in this series included Tomfoolery, which featured wordplay Witcracks which was about smart-aleck riddles and jokes and Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat, about superstitions. ![]() During his professional writing career his work had been published by a variety of firms, including Lippincott, Bantam Books, Farrar Straus, and HarperCollins.Ī series of his books on folklore for children were illustrated by Glen Rounds and each featured a type of folklore: the first, A Twister of Twists, a Tangler of Tongues, was published in 1972. ![]() He reported for The Binghamton Press from 1951 to 1955. He received his bachelor's degree from Colby College and a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University. After a stint in the navy, Schwartz became interested in writing. Schwartz was born in life the son of Gussie and Harry Schwartz, a taxi driver. Alvin Schwartz (Ap– March 14, 1992) was an American author and journalist who wrote more than fifty books dedicated to and dealing with topics such as folklore and word play, many of which were intended for young readers.
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