William Kotzwinkle
William Kotzwinkle
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William Kotzwinkle

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William Kotzwinkle

William Kotzwinkle (born November 22, 1938; 87 years ago (November 22, 1938), or 1943; 83 years ago (1943) according to different sources) is an American novelist, children's writer, and screenwriter. He was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. He won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel for Doctor Rat in 1977, and has also won the National Magazine Award for fiction. Kotzwinkle is known for writing the novelization of the screenplay for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

He has been married to author Elizabeth Gundy since 1970.

William Kotzwinkle was the only child of William John Kotzwinkle and Madolyn Murphy Kotzwinkle. He attended Rider College and later Penn State, where he began writing poetry as a literature major, until he was dismissed from the university. In 1957, he moved to New York City and embraced the beatnik community in Greenwich Village, working various odd jobs in addition to copywriting and writing for a tabloid. The Fireman, his first published book, was accepted for publication by Pantheon in 1969.

In 1970, he married Elizabeth Gundy and the two moved to New Brunswick. in 1974, he published The Fan Man, a novel focused on the Greenwich Village scene in the 1960s. On reading The Fan Man, Steven Spielberg asked Kotzwinkle to come to Hollywood and write the novelization of his upcoming film, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. The novelization was published in 1982 and became the best-selling novel of the year.

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