Dan Greenburg

American writer (1936–2023)

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.

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 Dan 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  ? ".

More than 150 of Greenburg's articles and humor pieces have appeared in such periodicals as The New Yorker, Playboy, The Huffington Post, Vanity Fair, New York, Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, Time, Life, Newsweek, Ms., Cosmopolitan, Mademoiselle, and Reader's Digest, and have been reprinted in dozens of anthologies of humor and satire in the U. S. and the United Kingdom.

Greenburg had small acting roles in several films he wrote, including Private Lessons, Private School, and I Could Never He also played John Clum in Doc (1971), the Frank Perry remake of Gunfight at the O. K. Corral.