Judith Viorst

(person) by junkpile Sat Nov 18 2000 at 23:30:10

Judith Viorst was born on February 2, 1931, in Newark, New Jersey. She began writing at age seven or eight, mostly poems about death. After a while she quit that, but she still wasn't published until age 30.

Judith earned a BA in history at Rutgers University, studied research at the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute, moved to New York, and got married, writing all the time. She began her writing career as a poet, and has since published six collections of poems for adults, as well as several for children.

Her most famous children's book, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, was published in 1972, and has since sold over two million copies. She says most of her ideas for children's stories come from her own kids, and she uses their real names in the books.

Judith has also written fiction and nonfiction, for adults and kids. Necessary Losses appeared for almost two years straight in the the New York Times' best-seller list.

Judith lives in Washington, DC, with her husband Milton, a political writer. They have three sons, Anthony, Nicholas and Alexander, and two granddaughters.


Quotes:

"It's hard to be hip over thirty when everyone else is nineteen, when the last dance we learned was the Lindy, and the last we heard, girls who looked like Barbara Streisand were trying to do something about it."

"I don't know why it cheers me up to know that I'm not the only person my age with sagging kneecaps, but it does."


Some Advice from a Mother to her Married Son

The answer to do you love me isn't, I married you, didn't I?
Or, Can't we discuss this after the ballgame is through?
It isn't, Well that all depends on what you mean by "love."
Or even, Come to bed and I'll prove that I do.
The answer isn't, How can I talk about love when the bacon is burned and the house is an absolute mess and the children are screaming their heads off and I'm going to miss my bus?
The answer is yes.
The answer is yes.
The answer is yes.


Books:

Absolutely Positively Alexander

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday

Alexander, Who's Not (Do You Hear Me? I Mean It!) Going to Move

Alphabet from Z to A (With Much Confusion on the Way)

Earrings

Forever Fifty and Other Negotiations

The Good-Bye Book

How Did I Get to Be Forty and Other Atrocities

I'll Fix Anthony

If I Were in Charge of the World and Other Worries

Imperfect Control: Our Lifelong Struggles With Power and Surrender

Murdering Mr. Monti: A Merry Little Tale of Sex and Violence

My Mama Says There Aren't Any Zombies, Ghosts, Vampires, Creatures, Demons, Monsters, Fiends, Goblins, or Things

Necessary Losses: The Loves, Illusions, Dependencies, and Impossible Expectations That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Grow

Rosie and Michael

Sad Underwear and Other Complications

Suddenly 60: And Other Shocks of Later Life

Sunday Morning

Super - Completely and Totally the Messiest

The Tenth Good Thing About Barney

Turning Points: When Everything Changes

When Did I Stop Being Twenty and Other Injustices

You're Officially a Grown-Up: The Graduate's Guide to Freedom, Responsibility, Happiness, Personal Hygiene, and the Conquest of Fear


thanks to:
http://www.library.okstate.edu/friends/viorst.htm
http://www.cyber-nation.com/victory/quotations/authors/quotes_viorst_judith.html
http://kennedy-center.org/programs/family/alexander/author.html
www.amazon.com

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