Thomas Hoobler, who with his wife, Dorothy Hoobler, wrote 103 books on a range of subjects, including YA biographies, mystery novels, and more, died February 22, the New York Times reported. He was 82.
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| Thomas & Dorothy Hoobler | |
The Hooblers spent most of the 1970s as trade magazine editors, even after they began writing books. Their first three titles appeared in the mid-1970s: House Plants, a manual; Frontier Diary, about a young girl's 19th-century trip across America; and Margaret Mead: A Life in Science.
They went on to contribute to a number of series, including Penguin's history books known by fans as "Big Heads" for their cartoonish covers, with titles like Where Are the Great Pyramids? (2015) and What Was the San Francisco Earthquake? (2016), the Times noted.
They wrote other series, including 10 "American Family Albums" for Oxford University Press, starting with The Chinese American Family Album (1994). The series won several honors, including three awards from the Parents' Choice Foundation.
Their most recent title was a book about presidential love letters titled Are You Prepared for the Storm of Love Making?
"Given their prolific output and the esteem they earned among teachers, parents and librarians, it's a good bet that a sizable percentage of any given elementary school library was written" by the Hooblers, the Times noted.
In addition to their nonfiction, they also wrote novels. In Darkness, Death (2004), part of a seven-book series about a samurai detective, won an Edgar Award.
In 2001, Thomas Hoobler appeared on the TV quiz show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, winning $500,000. They used some of the money to write some books for adult readers, such as The Monsters: Mary Shelley and the Curse of Frankenstein (2006) and The Crimes of Paris: A True Story of Murder, Theft and Detection (2009).
"They did not, as some curious readers assumed, sit side by side, clacking out manuscripts on matching typewriters," the Times wrote. The Hooblers worked in separate rooms, with separate responsibilities. Though they both researched and wrote, Dorothy Hoobler was better at the former while her husband took the lead on the writing.
"Sometimes I would do a very rough draft, and then he would write the final script of it--it really did depend," Dorothy Hoobler said in an interview. "We worked together pretty well, I think. Obviously, we got these projects done."