Gallows Humor.

by Jack Richardson

Vegetables can wait-dessert comes first.

This is the motto at Pinky's Sweet Tooth, a bakery run by hardworking Pinky and her niece Lulu. From Chocolate Yummies to Tutti-Frutti Cookies, Lulu thinks her aunt's desserts are the best in the whole universe. Unfortunately, no one else realizes it. The Sweet Tooth needs some customers.

Aunt Pinky has another "Without luck on your side, you have to get up really early in the morning." And no one gets up earlier than Pinky. Soon she is at work day and night on her greatest dessert ever, one she is sure will win first prize in the county fair and make the bakery famous. With Lulu as a taste tester and plenty of extra chocolate, Pinky whips up a sensational surprise, proving that luck doesn't just happen, it's something you have to make from scratch.

Michele Malkin's bright, boisterous artwork and a gentle message about the rewards of hard work make this picture book as irresistibly sweet as any of Aunt Pinky's chocolatey confections-kids will crave reading it as much as eating their favorite tasty treat!

72 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

Jack Carter Richardson was an American writer (born in either New York City or Bristol, Virginia) who was known for his existentialist dramas of the early 1960s.

Raised in the Jackson Heights section of Queens, New York City, Richardson later served in the United States Army during the Korean War. He then earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Columbia University, and studied at the University of Munich. In 1960, his first play, The Prodigal, a retelling of the story of Orestes, was produced Off-Broadway to critical acclaim, winning an Obie Award and a Drama Desk Award. Gallows Humor, a 1961 combination of two short plays, was also well received. Richardson's next two plays, Lorenzo (1963) and Xmas in Las Vegas (1965), were produced on Broadway, but were critical and commercial failures.

From the 1960s, Richardson wrote dramatic criticism and essays for The New York Times, New York Review of Books, Esquire, and Commentary, as well as two novels: The Prison Life of Harris Filmore (1965) and Memoir of a Gambler.

Richardson married author Anne Roth (now Anne Roiphe) in 1957, and they had a daughter Emily Carter. The couple later divorced. Richardson's second wife was Susan E. Morse, an Academy Award-nominated feature film editor best known for her work with Woody Allen. Their only child was a son, Dwight. They remained married until Richardson's death in Manhattan in July 2012.

Reviews

[Adam Rabiner]

Gallows Humor, written and performed in Greenwich Village in 1961 is a comedy in two acts. Gallows humor does have some laugh out loud lines, and I imagine it is funnier performed than read. It's absurd at times, dealing with existential problems as do the plays of Sartre and Samuel Beckett. Those who attended this play in New York over 50 years ago probably had some good laughs. But they also exited the theater with a sad recognition of the underlying unease of modern life and the human condition.

[C]

I imagine this play with great actors who could be absurd and surreal. Such a performance would make me laugh and think. Such is the power of this play. Thank you, Tí, for such an awesome present.

[Sandrex Red]

1966 Penguin