David A. Adler
author of fiction and nonfiction books for young readers

How do you choose the subject for a biography?
I like to write about people I think are interesting. When I decide on a subject, I discuss it with my editor and she decides if she thinks it will be interesting to children as well. If I find the person interesting, I love the research part and, by extension, the writing as well.

How do you research a subject's life or the time they lived?
I go to different sources depending on the person. One of my favorite sources are old encyclopedias. If I am writing about a person who lived 100 years ago I get an encyclopedia from 100 years ago. I have a 1906 encyclopedi and a 1911 encyclopedia. I try to go to newspapers of the time. And, of course, I go to books — other biographies and other materials.

Do you use the Internet for any of your research?
I try not to. I don't trust it.

Have you ever found out something about one of your subjects that surprised you?
I have. I find as I do more research, there are some subjects I like more and more and some I like less.

Should a biography always begin with when the subject was born?
My earlier biographies did. The ones I am writing now often don't. It's important to begin a biography — or any book or story — with something to draw the reader in.

How do you write a biography — which can be full of weighty facts — and make it read like a good story?
Well, what I try to do is teach as much about the subject through incidents rather than through a listing of facts. If I must list facts, the next paragraph will be an incident that is interesting, but is an example of one of the facts I just listed. I also try to use the voice of the subject as much as possible — using quotes.

Why did you choose to become an author?
I love to write.

How closely do you work with the illustrators of your biographies?
I don't work closely with them at all. Susana Natti has worked on most of the Cam Jansen books and I've never met her! I work on the manuscripts and send them to my editors. They send the manuscripts to the illustrators. While the illustrator is working on that book I'm working on the next one.

How did you get started with the Cam Jansen series?
I just wrote the first one and sent it to a publisher and they said they wanted to do a whole series. For the first book, I based it on a boy I knew in first and second grade at school who we thought had a photographic memory. I based the first one or two stories on him and the next stories on those first books. The Andy Russell books are based on things that go on in my family. In the first Andy Russell, about 50 gerbils get loose — that actually happened in my house. A snake got loose, too. In most households, that's a great calamity. Here it was a great calamity, but also the beginning of a new series.

Before, writing a biography, do you write a short biographical sketch?
I don't. It's in my head. I do an overview of the subject, but I don't write it out.

Do you plan to write some biographies of people who lived closer to present-day times?
I do have one scheduled of a 20th-century president.I did one on Rosa Parks. I also did one on Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to swim the English Channel. She lived in New Jersey and only died a few years ago.

How long does it take you to write a biography? Have some taken longer than others?
Well, I just finished a biography that I worked on for almost two years. It's for older readers.
Some take longer than others, especially if it's someone who's not that familiar to me, such as Simσn Bolνvar. I had to do a lot of research on South American history.

Where did you grow up?
I grew up on Long Island, New York, in a big house, filled with brothers, sisters, and books. I had three brothers and two sisters.

Will you ever write your own autobiography?
I've already written it. It's called My Writing Day. It's a part of a series of autobiographies of children's authors published by Richard C. Owen, Inc. That book didn't take that long to research!

When deciding on a biography to write, do you try to pick people of diverse cultures?
Yes, I do. If you look at the list of people I've written about, there are men and women, all different races, and many different eras — from the early 1700s forward.

How do you keep your research materials organized when writing a biography?
I work on one chapter at a time, while I do the research. So, I research a chapter and write it. Then I research the next chapter and write it. I don't end up with a huge amount of information to incorporate into a book. I go one chapter at a time, writing as I research.

Of all of the people whose biography you have written, which one would you like to meet?
Benjamin Franklin, Lou Gehrig, Gertrude Ederle, Jesse Owens, Martin Luther King, Jr., and probably every other person I've written about! Helen Keller would also be fascinating to meet, and Eleanor Roosevelt — if I had no interest in meeting these people, I wouldn't have wanted to write about them.

What was your favorite subject in school?
Math and history were my favorite subjects. I'm a licensed math and history teacher. I taught math for nine years and history for about half a year. The school needed me as a math teacher more than as a history teacher.

Who were your favorite authors that you read when you were young?
Duane Decker — he wrote some wonderful baseball stories about a fictional team called the Blue Sox. I loved the stories by Robert McCloskey. I liked some of the early Dr. Seuss stories — Bartholomew and His 500 Hats and The Kings Stilts. I also liked to read biographies when I was young.

What do you think is the best thing about writing?
I love that no one would write a story exactly the way I would write it, even the same story. We each have a unique voice.

What do you think is the hardest thing about writing?
Starting a new book — finding the voice of the story. That's why writing a book that's part of a serirs series is sometimes easier than an individual title. I've already found the voice for the book. It's the same as the previous books in the series.

What makes a person's life worth writing about?
Probably everyone's life is worth writing about. I judge it by how many people would be interested in reading about it. If there's something there that goes beyond what the subject accomplished. For example, with the biography of Gertrude Ederle, her story isn't just a story of a woman swimming the English Channel. It's a story of the beginnings of the women's rights movement. The story of Lou Gehrig is about courage and facing a crisis. Anne Frank is about the dangers of hatred and prejudice.

Do you keep a diary or journal?
I do keep a journal, but I don't write in it as often as I should.

Do you have a special place where you write?
Yes. I actually have two special places. I have an office in my house which is where I am right now. I also have a special place in my local library where I work every afternoon. The reason I love the library, besides all the great books, is that I don't bring along a telephone, so I can work without interruptions.

Did you daydream a lot when you were young?
I still do.

How emotionally involved do you get in the story line when you're writing your books?
Lately, I've tried to get more emotionally involved — I want the reader to feel something about the subject. So, for the reader to get involved, I have to get involved.

Who are some of your favorite authors now?
For children, Johanna Hurwitz; for adults, David Halberstam.

How much rewriting do you do?
I do an enormous amount of rewriting. Knowing I'm going to do so much rewriting makes the first draft easier.

What was the first story you can remember writing? What was it about?
The first story I wrote was A Little at a Time. I sent it to Random House and they published it. I was lucky.

What's next for Cam Jansen?
She'll keep clicking and solving mysteries.


How many books have you written?
So far, I've had 205 books published.

What do you like to do when you're not writing?
I love to listen to old radio tapes from the 30s and 40s. I love to paint and draw. I like to play and watch baseball.

What does the A in your name stand for?
It stands for my middle name. My middle name is Abraham.

If you weren't a writer, what would you be?
I was a math teacher, so maybe I'd still be a math teacher.

What advice can you give young writers?
Young writers, even old writers, should be willing to take suggestions from other people, to do a lot of rewriting, and to read like a writer, not a reader. When a writer reads something and likes it, he asks, “why did I like it?” When he reads something and doesn't like what he read he asks himself, "Why didn't I like it?”

Booklist
Gr. 5-7. Adler follows up his well-received B. Franklin, Printer (2001) with an equally perceptive study of another iconic figure. Distilling major scholarship from the previous two centuries, he does nothing to tarnish Washington's reputation. Yes, he owned slaves, had a fiery temper, and exhibited such stingy ways that he sometimes drove his steward to tears, but he was also a canny, courageous, natural leader who learned from his mistakes, struggled with self-doubt, and held views toward slavery that were, for the time, moderate. Adler enhances his profile with a coherent, if distant, account of the Revolutionary War, small illustrations of many of the people and places he mentions, generous extracts from period letters or news accounts (in an evocatively battered looking typeface), capsule biographies of Washington's generals and cabinet members, and, finally, discursive endnotes and meaty resource lists. Marrin's George Washington and the Founding of a Nation (2001) features more rousing accounts of battles, but this offers clear views of Washington's public and private lives as well as sharp insights into his character and his times. John Peters
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I've always been a dreamer . . . A few years ago I was at Open School Night for my middle son. His fourth-grade teacher was the same one my eldest son had had seven years earlier and the same teacher I had had some time in the 1950s. The teacher looked at me, smiled, and then told the roomful of parents, "A long time ago, when I had just started teaching, David was in my class." She smiled again and said, "I went to the principal and asked, 'What should I do with Adler? He's always dreaming.' 'Leave him alone,' the principal answered. 'Maybe one day he'll be a writer.'"
That's her story, not mine. But I know I did dream through much of my early school years and I did become a writer. Dreamers become writers, and, for me, being a published writer is a dream come true.
I write both fiction and nonfiction. I begin my fiction with the main character. The story comes later. Of course, since I'll be spending a lot of time with each main character, why not have him or her be someone I like? Cam Jansen is based on an elementary school classmate whom we all envied because we thought he had a photographic memory. Andy Russell is based on a beloved member of my family.
For my books of nonfiction I write about subjects I find interesting. The recent biographies I've written are about Benjamin Franklin, Janusz Korczak, Dwight David Eisenhower, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Lou Gehrig, Joe Louis, Lewis and Clark, Martin Luther King, Jr.,and George Washington Carver.
When I write, I try not to worry about each word, or even each sentence or paragraph. For me, books evolve. I rewrite each sentence, each manuscript, many times. And I work with my editors. I look forward to their suggestions, their help in the almost endless rewrite process.