Talking Animals and Others: The Life and Work of Walter R. Brooks, Creator of Freddy the Pig

by Michael Cart

In the last ten years Overlook's Freddy the Pig rediscovery has delighted hundreds of thousands of readers around the world. But who created this famous pig? Walter R. Brooks shared much in common with his most famous literary creation, including a love of travel and adventure, a sparkling wit and intelligence, an abiding faith in friendship, and a wonderful way with words. Together, Brooks and Freddy the Pig rank among the great pioneers and heroes of classic American children's literature. Author and librarian Michael Cart (himself a lifelong fan of Freddy the Pig of Bean Farm) gracefully combines archival research, firsthand accounts from Brooks's personal files, and interviews with his second wife to present the first complete biography of the man behind the pig. Much of the series sprang from Brooks's idyllic childhood in turn-of-the-century upstate New York among a colorful cast of family and friends. Brooks spent his adult life writing iconoclastic columns and book reviews as well as original, often fantastical stories for numerous popular publications. Talking Animals and Others is a long-awaited homage to the gentle genius of this great American author and to the pig who lives on in the hearts of devoted readers everywhere.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 8, 2009

About the author

Former Director of the Beverly Hills (CA) Public Library and a Past President of the Young Adult Library Services Association, Michael Cart is a nationally recognized expert in children's and young adult literature. Now a columnist and reviewer for ALA's Booklist magazine, he is the author or editor of eight books, including From Romance to Realism, a critical history of YA literature; MY FATHER'S SCAR, a young adult novel that was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, and the anthology LOVE AND SEX: Ten Stories of Truth, also a Best Book for Young Adults and a Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers.

Michael teaches young adult literature at UCLA and is the recipient of the 2000 Grolier Foundation Award. He lives in northern California.

Reviews

[John Marr · Rating 3 out of 5]

As an avid reader of the Freddy the Pig books for some 40 years, I couldn't pass up this bio of Freddy's (and Mr. Ed's) creator, Walter R. Brooks. It's a decent bio, extensively researched and quite detailed, though I could have done with less about Brooks's antecedents. Obligatory fun fact: the then hot-young-detective novelist Dashiell Hammett was retained to write an intorduction to the first edition of FREDDY THE DETECTIVE. Sadly for the sake of posterity, he booted the gig. A cocktail or two was no doubt a factor.

[Bonnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thorough,well researched account of the life and times of Walter R. Brooks the author of the classic American childrens'series about Freddy the Pig. Mr. Brooks has been gone for over 50 years but his wonderful stories of Freddy, the Bean farm, Centerboro (a town where the local society dame may invite a lion to tea and the neighbors don't think anything of it), the Martian baseball team, and the wonderful Boomschmidt Traveling Circus live on--having recently been reprinted. Mr. Brooks also wrote the Mr. Ed short stories about the talking horse--in his stories Ed was even sassier than the Ed of TV fame. Books includes critiques of the entire Freddy series. A must for adult Fans of Freddy!

[Bookworm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly enjoyed this insightful and interesting biography about one of my favorite children's series! Michael Cart truly loved the books himself, as you can tell from his writing, and did a fantastic job at keeping it from dragging, as some biographies can. I now have a huge craving to do a Freddy the Pig reading binge!:)

[Dixie · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the days when one got chicken pox and mumps and measles and spent two weeks in bed per illness, my librarian mom brought sickly me some books to read, including Freddy and the Perilous Adventure, by Walter R Brooks. I was nine or ten years old. That was about 55 years ago, and my love for Freddy and his 25 books of adventures has never wavered. I am grateful to Michael Cart for painstakingly assembling a biography of Mr. Brooks; I had often wondered what the author of these funny, clever books was like. Now I know.

[Roberta · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the only full-length biography of Walter R. Brooks and, as such, it is priceless. It also contains the most complete information available about Brooks' books and short stories.

I was particularly interested in Walter R. Brooks' life before he started writing the Freddy the Pigs books but I read the beginning of the book without having gotten a good feel for his actual childhood. That part of the book was about 20% Walter R. Brooks and 80% his semi-autobiographical fiction, his grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. The rest of his life and career are well covered.

Chapter 14 contains a very snarky anecdote about WRB's first wife which may reveal the disadvantage of using wife #2 as a major source of information. On the other hand, I think that if wife #1 was annoyed, it may have been justified. We have only wife #2's version.

The annotated list of Freddy the pig books, the lists of Brooks' books and articles and the bibliography in the back of the book are helpful to collectors although, since it is only part of the book, it does not do as thorough a job as an entire book devoted to describing the series. For example, the way that The World Of Jennings: An A Z Companion Of Anthony Buckeridge's Famous Schoolboy does for the Jennings series.

On page 260, “Ed Takes the Brush in his Teeth” is missing from the list of Mr. Ed short stories. It is included in the book The Original Mr. Ed.

There is no index. Readers can use "Look Inside" on Amazon as a substitute.

The subtitle of the book should have been the title. There is no reason for a biography, or any non-fiction for that matter, to have a title that does not make it absolutely clear what the book is about. It is also a disadvantage for publishers marketing the book and for readers looking for it.

[Tom Fortner · Rating 2 out of 5]

As much as it pains me to say about what personally should have been a intensely compelling topic, this was a slog to get through, and that’s largely due to the quality of the writing on display here. I will say that revisiting all the ‘Freddy’ titles through the author’s’Notes and Commentary’ section was rather delightfully nostalgic.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars for being the only complete biography of Walter Brooks, with an unflinching and comprehensive analysis of the Freddy books.

[Eve Pines · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun to read about the life of Walter Brooks, and appreciation of the Freddie books.

[Carmine]

abandoned...perhaps will pick it up again.