William Kotzwinkle
Author of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
About the Author
William Kotzwinkle was born in 1938 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He attended Rider College and Pennsylvania State University.He worked as an editor and writer in the 1960s. William Kotzwinkle is an accomplished author who is best known for his book of the film E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, but who has show more produced a range of work for both adults and children that often transgresses genre boundaries and the distinction between serious and popular fiction. Beginning as a children's writer with The Fireman, he then published novels for adults such as Hermes 3000, The Fan Man, and Queen of Swords, which began to establish him as an original and distinctive novelist. But it was Doctor Rat that made his reputation as a powerful fantasy writer with a sharp satirical edge. The novel focuses upon laboratory rats whose spokesman, the Doctor Rat of the title, eventually escapes from the vast laboratory where experiments on his fellow-creatures are taking place, and whose adventures are interwoven with shorter tales told by animals of different kinds who finally try to form a whole that will make humans more peaceful and benign. But they are all killed. William Kotzwinkle is a novelist and poet, who is known for his broad range of style and subject. He is a two-time recipient of the National Magazine Award for Fiction, a National Book Critics Circle Award nominee. He lives with his wife, author Elizabeth Gundy, in Maine. He has won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel for Doctor Rat in 1977. He published The Million Dollar Bear in 1994. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: www.hierschreibenwir.de
Series
Works by William Kotzwinkle
אי. טי. חבר מכוכב אחר... 2 copies
Schwimmer im dunklen Strom. 1 copy
1998 1 copy
E. T., der Ausserirdische und seine Abenteuer auf der Erde : d. Roman zum berühmten Steven-Spielberg-Film. Heyne… (1983) 1 copy
Ein Bär will nach oben Roman 1 copy
E.T. mimozemšťan 1 copy
A Man Who Knew His Birds 1 copy
Associated Works
Devils & Demons: A Treasury of Fiendish Tales Old & New (1991) — Contributor — 269 copies, 2 reviews
The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Second Annual Collection (1987) — Contributor — 202 copies, 1 review
For the Sake of the Game: Stories Inspired by the Sherlock Holmes Canon (2018) — Contributor — 94 copies, 7 reviews
The Literary Lover: Great Stories of Passion and Romance (1993) — Contributor — 52 copies, 2 reviews
Wanting a Child: Twenty-Two Writers on Their Difficult but Mostly Successful Quests for Parenthood in a High-Tech Age (1998) — Contributor — 17 copies
Visions from the Edge: An Anthology of Atlantic Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy (1981) — Contributor — 10 copies
Cricket Magazine, Vol. 8, No. 2, October 1980 — Contributor — 2 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1943-11-22
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA
- Occupations
- screenwriter
novelist - Relationships
- Gundy, Elizabeth (wife)
- Agent
- Richard Curtis
Members
Reviews
Elephant Bangs Train by William Kotzwinkle
Maybe I should mark it DNF, because I did skim a lot of the stories. They were just too weird to me. Maybe if I dug acid or whatever, wtf, I dunno. However, the title story is surprisingly interesting, and the very first, about the unearthing of a mammoth (mastodon?) in Russia is powerful, masterful, wise.
I almost gave this book 5 stars. I read the audible.com version of this which is perfectly narrated.
Tommy Martini was built like a star athlete and could have become a football player or wrestler. But in his youth he works as a bouncer, and afflicted with severe anger, he kills a person with one punch. His grandfather helps bury the killing, and Martini joins a monastery in Mexico. At the start of the book he is called back to his home town, a lot like Sedona AZ, as his grandfather is dying. He learns he is the heir to his grandfather's large house and large but hidden fortune. People are after both, and Martini encounters a raft of bad guys who end up badly. He also meets with two women, one a new age prophetess of UFOs and another a follower of her.
The book is very violent, all of it very satisfying. In many crime novels the dialog and writing can seem forcibly hard boiled; not in this one. It's all hard boiled but real and very enjoyable. I damned near gave it 5 stars, I enjoyed it that much, but that doesn't seem right for a crime novel.… (more)
Tommy Martini was built like a star athlete and could have become a football player or wrestler. But in his youth he works as a bouncer, and afflicted with severe anger, he kills a person with one punch. His grandfather helps bury the killing, and Martini joins a monastery in Mexico. At the start of the book he is called back to his home town, a lot like Sedona AZ, as his grandfather is dying. He learns he is the heir to his grandfather's large house and large but hidden fortune. People are after both, and Martini encounters a raft of bad guys who end up badly. He also meets with two women, one a new age prophetess of UFOs and another a follower of her.
The book is very violent, all of it very satisfying. In many crime novels the dialog and writing can seem forcibly hard boiled; not in this one. It's all hard boiled but real and very enjoyable. I damned near gave it 5 stars, I enjoyed it that much, but that doesn't seem right for a crime novel.… (more)
Sequel to the wonderful Felonious Monk. After the butchery of the first book, Tommy Martini has returned to the monastery in Mexico. He gets a message on his phone from an old friend of his, just as the friend is being shot, and the friend asks him to look after his wife. Martini returns to his home of Coalville to find out what has happened to her.
Like the first book, this is filled with a lot of glorious, deserving deaths, and some surprises about who in the end does not get killed. Kotzwinkle's writing is very absorbing. Highly recommend these two books, and their audible.com incarnations are wonderful read.… (more)
Like the first book, this is filled with a lot of glorious, deserving deaths, and some surprises about who in the end does not get killed. Kotzwinkle's writing is very absorbing. Highly recommend these two books, and their audible.com incarnations are wonderful read.… (more)
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Statistics
- Works
- 72
- Also by
- 13
- Members
- 7,338
- Popularity
- #3,331
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 168
- ISBNs
- 356
- Languages
- 16
- Favorited
- 13