Dan Greenburg, a prolific humorist, bestselling author, essayist, playwright and screenwriter "whose satirical prose examined Jewish angst, women and sex, and who later produced a series of humorous children's books," died December 18, the New York Times reported. He was 87.
Greenburg achieved national fame in 1964 with his book How to Be a Jewish Mother: A Very Lovely Training Manual. The Times noted that even though "his own mother didn't think it was particularly funny," the book sold more than 270,000 copies in its first year and opened the door for him to embark on a long career as a writer.
He subsequently published more than a dozen books for adults, including How to Make Yourself Miserable (1966), What Do Women Want (1982) and Scoring: A Sexual Memoir (1972). He also wrote in other genres--horror, the occult and murder mysteries--and later began writing humorous children's fiction, turning out numerous volumes of the popular The Zack Files series, for which his son was the inspiration.
Greenburg acted, performed stand-up comedy and wrote plays and movie scripts, including for the hits Private Lessons (1981) and Private School (1983). In addition, he wrote more than 150 humor pieces for the New Yorker, Esquire, Playboy, Vanity Fair, and other publications.
In 1967 he married journalist Nora Ephron, "who would find success and fame as a comedy screenwriter and director after their nine-year marriage--the first for both of them--ended in an amicable divorce," the Times wrote, adding: "They had the friendliest split one could imagine. 'When we got the divorce, we kept dating,' Mr. Greenburg said on a podcast in 2021."
Before writing his first bestseller, Greenburg had met publisher Roger Price at a party and pitched an idea for a book titled The Snob's Guide to Status Cars. Price rejected the pitch but suggested he come up with another proposal. Over lunch days later, Greenberg and Ginzburg "were lamenting how their Jewish mothers had used guilt to get them to eat," the Times noted. Greenburg thought, "I'll write that." Price liked the idea, offered a $500 advance, and How to Be a Jewish Mother was published by Price, Stern, Sloan in late 1964. The book was a hit, would go on to be published in 24 countries and made into a musical, which had a brief run on Broadway beginning in December 1967.
Greenburg began writing children's books in the mid-1990s. "I visit schools constantly," he said in an interview for the website of Harcourt Books (now Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) in 2006. "I talk to kids. I try out ideas on them, and I ask them what they like to read. Both boys and girls tell me they love scary stories and funny stories the best, and the boys tell me they love to be grossed out. I've tried to put all three things in these books."
He told the Times in 1998 that writing children's books had been deeply gratifying: "It's the most fun I ever had in my life," he said. "There's nothing more fulfilling than hearing that you've turned a kid on to books. That's enough for a career right there."