Donald J. Sobol (October 4, 1924 – July 11, 2012) was an American writer best known for his

children's books A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younge ...

, especially the Encyclopedia Brown mystery series.

Early life and education

Donald Sobol was born in

The Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, to Ira J. and Ida (Gelula) Sobol. Ira Sobol owned a few

gas station A filling station, also known as a gas station () or petrol station (), is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold in the 2010s were gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel. Gasolin ...

s that eventually were sold. Donald attended the NYC Ethical Culture Fieldston School and then served for two years during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

with the Army Corps of Engineers in the Pacific Theatre. After the War Sobol graduated from

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the oldest coeducational liberal arts college in the United States and the second oldest continuously operating coeducational institute of highe ...

with a degree in English literature in 1948.

Career

Sobol's career began as a

copy boy A copy boy is a typically young and junior worker on a newspaper. The job involves taking typed stories from one section of a newspaper to another. According to Bruce Guthrie, the former editor-in-chief of the ''Herald Sun'' who began work there ...

for the ''

New York Sun ''The New York Sun'' is an American online newspaper published in Manhattan; from 2002 to 2008 it was a daily newspaper distributed in New York City. It debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of the earlier New York ...

'', and he eventually worked his way up to reporter. In 1949, he started work at the '' Daily News'' and remained there for two years. After a brief stint as a

buyer Procurement is the method of discovering and agreeing to terms and purchasing goods, services, or other works from an external source, often with the use of a tendering or competitive bidding process. When a government agency buys goods or serv ...

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

in New York, he moved to

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

and started writing full-time. He started writing the syndicated series '' Two-Minute Mysteries'' in 1959, starring

criminologist Criminology (from Latin , "accusation", and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'' meaning: "word, reason") is the study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is an interdisciplinary field in both the behavioural and ...

Dr. Haledjian. It proved very popular and ran for more than ten years. In 1963, he started writing the '' Encyclopedia Brown'' series, featuring Leroy "Encyclopedia" Brown, a schoolboy who was an amateur sleuth. Compared with the ''Two-Minute Mysteries'' series, which features crimes as serious as

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the ...

, the ''Encyclopedia Brown'' books are more juvenile-oriented, often dealing with matters such as pranks or

petty theft Theft is the act of taking another person's property or services without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. The word ''theft'' is also used as a synonym or informal shorthand term for some ...

. Sobol's ''Encyclopedia Brown'' titles have never been out of print and have been translated into twelve languages. Sobol was rejected two dozen times before his first ''Encyclopedia Brown'' book was published. In 1975, the

Mystery Writers of America Mystery Writers of America (MWA) is an organization of mystery and crime writers, based in New York City. The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday. It presents the Edgar Award ...

honored Sobol and his Encyclopedia Brown series with a Special

Edgar Award The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America, based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor the bes ...

. The last book in the series penned by Sobol, ''Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Soccer Scheme,'' was published in October 2012, three months after the author's death. Sobol wrote the children's novel ''Secret Agents Four'', in which a group of Miami teenagers attempt to thwart foreign saboteurs. Sobol also penned the non-fiction book ''True Sea Adventures,'' published in 1975. Sobol wrote more than 65 books. In addition to the books he wrote for children, Sobol also wrote a number of nonfiction books on topics ranging from US civil war history to investing. He also wrote and contributed to magazines under a variety of

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

s. His manuscripts are stored at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

, in the Kerlan Collection.

Personal life and final years

Sobol was married to Rose (née Tiplitz) who was both an engineer and author. Sobol left behind three children: John, Eric and Diane as well as four grandchildren. A fourth child, Glen, died at age 23 in a car accident in 1983. On July 11, 2012, Sobol died from

gastric lymphoma Primary gastric lymphoma (lymphoma that originates in the stomach itself) is an uncommon condition, accounting for less than 15% of gastric malignancies and about 2% of all lymphomas. However, the stomach is a very common extranodal site for lymp ...

at the age of 87.

Selected bibliography

Encyclopedia Brown series

The Encyclopedia Brown books, in order of publication (parentheses indicate numbers on original release cover art): # ''Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective'' (1963, , 1982 reissue ) # ''Encyclopedia Brown Strikes Again'' (1965, , reissued as ''Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Secret Pitch'', ) # ''Encyclopedia Brown Finds the Clues'' (1966, ) # ''Encyclopedia Brown Gets His Man'' (1967, ) # ''Encyclopedia Brown Solves Them All'' (1968, ) # ''Encyclopedia Brown Keeps the Peace'' (1969, ) # ''Encyclopedia Brown Saves the Day'' (1970, ) # ''Encyclopedia Brown Tracks Them Down'' (1971, ) # ''Encyclopedia Brown Shows the Way'' (1972, ) # ''Encyclopedia Brown Takes the Case'' (1973, ) # ''Encyclopedia Brown Lends a Hand'' (1974, , reissued as ''Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Exploding Plumbing and Other Mysteries'', ) # ''Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Dead Eagles'' (1975, ) # ''Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Midnight Visitor'' (1977, ) # ''Encyclopedia Brown Carries On'' (1980, ) # ''Encyclopedia Brown Sets the Pace'' (1981, ) # (15½) ''Encyclopedia Brown Takes the Cake'' (co-written with Glenn Andrews, 1982, ) # (16) ''Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Mysterious Handprints'' (1985, ) # (17) ''Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Treasure Hunt'' (1988, ) # (18) ''Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Disgusting Sneakers'' (1990, ) # (19) ''Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Two Spies'' (1995, ) # (20) ''Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of Pablo's Nose'' (1996, ) # (21) ''Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Sleeping Dog'' (1998, ) # (22) ''Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Slippery Salamander'' (2000, ) # (23) ''Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Jumping Frogs'' (2003, ) # (24) ''Encyclopedia Brown Cracks the Case'' (2007, ) # (25) ''Encyclopedia Brown, Super Sleuth'' (2009, ) # (26) ''Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Secret UFOs'' (2010, ) # (27) ''Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Carnival Crime'' (2011, ) # (28) ''Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Soccer Scheme'' (2012, )

Two-Minute Mysteries series

The Two-Minute Mysteries series, in order of publication: # ''Two-Minute Mysteries'' (1969, ) # ''More Two-Minute Mysteries'' (1971, ) # ''Still More Two-Minute Mysteries'' (1975, )

References

External links

Sobol
at publisher HarperCollins * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sobol, Donald J. 1924 births 2012 deaths American children's writers United States Army personnel of World War II American mystery writers Edgar Award winners Oberlin College alumni United States Army Corps of Engineers personnel United States Army soldiers Novelists from Florida Writers from New York City American male novelists 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American male writers Novelists from New York (state)