Barry, Dave 1947–

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Barry, Dave 1947–

PERSONAL: Born July 3, 1947, in Armonk, NY; son of David W. and Marion Barry; married Elizabeth Lenox Pyle, 1975 (marriage ended); married Michelle Kaufman, 1996; children: Robert, Sophie. Education: Haverford College, B.A., 1969.

ADDRESSES: Office—Miami Herald, 1 Herald Plaza, Miami, FL 33132-1693.

CAREER: Writer. Daily Local News, West Chester, PA, reporter, 1971–75; worked for Associated Press, Philadelphia, PA, 1975–76; lecturer on effective writing for businesses for R.S. Burger Associates (consulting firm), 1975–83; freelance humor columnist, beginning 1980; Miami Herald, Miami, FL, humor columnist, beginning 1983.

AWARDS, HONORS: Distinguished Writing Award, American Society of Newspaper Editors, 1986; Pulitzer Prize for commentary, 1988.

WRITINGS:

The Taming of the Screw: Several Million Homeowners' Problems Sidestepped, illustrated by Jerry O'Brien, Rodale Press (Emmaus, PA), 1983.

Babies and Other Hazards of Sex: How to Make a Tiny Person in Only Nine Months, with Tools You Probably Have around the Home (also see below), illustrated by Jerry O'Brien, Rodale Press (Emmaus, PA), 1984.

Bad Habits: A 100-Percent Fact-Free Book, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1985.

Stay Fit and Healthy until You're Dead (also see below), illustrated by Jerry O'Brien, Rodale Press (Emmaus, PA), 1985.

Claw Your Way to the Top: How to Become the Head of a Major Corporation in Roughly a Week (also see below), illustrated by Jerry O'Brien, Rodale Press (Emmaus, PA), 1986.

Dave Barry's Guide to Marriage and/or Sex (also see below), illustrated by Jerry O'Brien, Rodale Press (Emmaus, PA), 1987.

Dave Barry's Greatest Hits (also see below), Crown (New York, NY), 1988.

Homes and Other Black Holes: The Happy Homeowner's Guide, illustrated by Jeff McNelly, Fawcett (New York, NY), 1988.

Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort of History of the United States, Random House (Garden City, NY), 1989.

Dave Barry Turns Forty (also see below), Crown (New York, NY), 1990.

Dave Barry Talks Back (also see below), Crown (New York, NY), 1991.

Dave Barry's Only Travel Guide You'll Ever Need, Fawcett (New York, NY), 1991.

Davy Barry's Guide to Life (contains Babies and Other Hazards of Sex: How to Make a Tiny Person in Only Nine Months, with Tools You Probably Have around the Home, Dave Barry's Guide to Marriage and/or Sex, Stay Fit and Healthy until You're Dead, and Claw Your Way to the Top: How to Become the Head of a Major Corporation in Roughly a Week), illustrated by Jerry O'Brien, Wings Books (New York, NY), 1991.

Dave Barry Does Japan = Deibu Bari ga "Nihon o Suru," Random House (New York, NY), 1992.

Dave Barry Is Not Making This Up, cartoons by Jeff MacNelly, Crown (New York, NY), 1994.

Dave Barry's Gift Guide to End All Gift Guides, Crown (New York, NY), 1994.

The World According to Dave Barry (contains Dave Barry Talks Back, Dave Barry Turns Forty, and Dave Barry's Greatest Hits), Wings Books (New York, NY), 1994.

Dave Barry's Complete Guide to Guys: A Fairly Short Book, Random House (New York, NY), 1995.

Dave Barry in Cyberspace, Crown (New York, NY), 1996.

(With Jeff MacNelly) A Golf Handbook: All I Ever Learned I Forgot by the Third Fairway, Triumph Books (Chicago, IL), 1997.

Dave Barry Is from Mars and Venus, Crown (New York, NY), 1997.

Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 1997.

Dave Barry Turns Fifty, Crown (New York, NY), 1998.

Big Trouble, Putnam (New York, NY), 1999.

Dave Barry Is Not Taking This Sitting Down!, Crown (New York, NY), 2000.

"The Greatest Invention in the History of Mankind Is Beer": And Other Manly Insights from Dave Barry, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 2001.

My Teenage Son's Goal in Life Is Making Me Feel 3,500 Years Old; and Other Thoughts on Parenting from Dave Barry, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 2001.

Dave Barry Hits below the Beltway: A Vicious and Unprovoked Attack on Our Most Cherished Political Institutions, Random House (New York, NY), 2001.

Tricky Business (novel), Putnam (New York, NY), 2002.

Boogers Are My Beat: More Lies, but Some Actual Journalism, Crown (New York, NY), 2003.

Dave Barry's Money Secrets: Like: Why Is There a Giant Eyeball on the Dollar?, Crown (New York, NY), 2006.

The Shepherd, the Angel, and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog (children's book), Putnam (New York, NY), 2006.

Dave Barry on Dads, Running Press (Philadelphia, PA), 2007.

WITH RIDLEY PEARSON; "NEVERLAND" SERIES; BASED ON J.M. BARRIE'S "PETER PAN" STORIES

Peter and the Starcatchers, Disney Editions (New York, NY), 2004.

The Missing Mermaid, Disney Editions (New York, NY), 2005.

Peter and the Shadow Thieves, Disney Editions (New York, NY), 2006.

Escape from the Carnivale, Disney Editions (New York, NY), 2006.

Cave of the Dark Wind, Disney Editions (New York, NY), 2007.

ADAPTATIONS: Big Trouble was adapted as a motion picture, directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, starring Tim Allen and Rene Russo, and released by Touchstone in 2001; Peter and the Shadow Thieves, was optioned for film by Disney, 2006.

SIDELIGHTS: Dave Barry ranks as one of America's most popular humor columnists; his lighthearted and often outrageous observations on the foibles of middle-class America helped to win him the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for commentary. Barry is based at the Miami Herald, but since 1986 his column has been syndicated in more than 150 newspapers nationwide. The humorist attracts a large, loyal readership because he finds and exaggerates the irony in situations average people experience on a daily basis. The subjects of his columns are limitless; any event or popular trend that strikes Barry as silly or worthy of ridicule can become the focus of his scrutiny—the adventures of buying and maintaining a home, raising children, or facing rush-hour traffic.

Before becoming a full-time columnist, Barry worked as a journalist for the Daily Local News in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and the Associated Press, then spent several years conducting writing seminars for men and women in the business world. The opportunity to contribute humor columns to the Daily Local News as a freelancer gave Barry the chance to indulge in his satirical observations. By 1983 his column appeared in the Miami Herald. That same year he published his first book of humor, The Taming of the Screw: Several Million Homeowners' Problems Sidestepped. Barry has since produced many other books, including Dave Barry's Greatest Hits, a collection of previously published columns, and two titles that reached the New York Times best-seller list, Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort of History of the United States and Dave Barry Turns Forty.

Dave Barry Slept Here offers Barry's unorthodox history of the United States, spoofing, among other things, history textbooks and classes and Americans'—including the author's—general ignorance of the subject. Barry boasts that the book skips most wars, is completely free of facts which he considers boring, and offers an ingenious cure for remembering historical dates: all events occur on October 8, which coincides with his son's birthday. Further humor derives from amusing chapter headings, useless footnotes, outrageous discussion questions, and an unusual index, with such helpful references as "Louis the Somethingth." Washington Post contributor John Sladek pronounced the book "a dazzling performance," and New York Times Book Review contributor Richard Lingeman lauded Barry's "irreverent eye." Dave Barry Turns Forty describes, from Barry's very personal point of view, the problems that arise when facing middle age.

A family trip to Japan became the inspiration for Dave Barry Does Japan = Deibu Bari ga "Nihon o Suru". Jonathan Rauch commented in the Washington Post Book World that Barry "is funny on Japan, but like all good humorists he is also, in his twisted way, truthful and merciless." Barry comments on the strangeness of Japanese society and customs with satirical description of bathhouses, Japanese business ethos, Tokyo taxis, the exorbitant expenses associated with daily life, and the peculiar assimilation of Western culture in Japan. New York Times Book Review critic Robert J. Collins noted: "As Mr. Barry makes clear, Japanese and Americans do the same things for different reasons, and different things for the same reason." Barry's observations of Japan's "alien culture" are presented "with style, grace, true wit and a sense of humanity (though slightly warped)," according to Collins.

Barry branched out from his series of nonfiction humor books to write the novels Big Trouble and Tricky Business. Big Trouble is set in the criminal underworld of Miami, and Tricky Business takes place on a casino cruise. Both novels have a huge cast of characters, all of whom are involved in arresting, killing, influencing, or lusting after one another, and all of whom end up in various absurd situations. In the Houston Chronicle, Jim Barlow noted: "Plot is not a strong point with Barry. Funny is." Bob Longino wrote in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that both novels were "fast-paced, bullet-riddled and steeped with Barry's cynical wit," and in the same publication, Phil Kloer commented that Big Trouble "is a very funny novel, with more laughs per chapter than most of Barry's twenty or so nonfiction books."

Barry's 2003 collection of columns, Boogers Are My Beat: More Lies, but Some Actual Journalism, continues in his trademark humorous vein, this time in discussions of everything from the Olympic games, the Florida election recall, income taxes, and Gary Condit to airport security, guest towels, Yorkshire terriers, and Humvees. "For the most part, the humor is in the title," remarked Library Journal contributor Necia Parker-Gibson, "but it is intended to get the audience's attention so that Barry can make his political or personal points rather than shock his audience." Writing in Booklist, Kristine Huntley commented that "Barry has never been as funny as he is in this rip-roaring new collection of columns." On a rare serious note, Barry includes two essays written after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center. Of these essays, and the book in general, Huntley wrote: "Whether funny or serious, Barry is always on target."

"What makes Mr. Barry funny? Easy," wrote New York Times Book Review contributor Alison Teal in a review of Dave Barry's Greatest Hits. "He grew up in an all-WASP upper-middle-class neighborhood, played Little League baseball, mowed his parents' lawn and … attended the Episcopal Church." Teal continued: "He gets his humor from the blandest slice of American pie." Teal added of Barry, "He has a gift for taking things at face value and rendering them funny on those grounds alone, for squeezing every ounce of humor out of a perfectly ordinary experience."

Barry collaborated with mystery author Ridley Pearson to write the young adult novel Peter and the Starcatchers. In this prequel to Peter Pan, Barry and Pearson present a story about how the characters who populate this children's classic became a part of Neverland. The story revolves around the orphaned Peter and his friends who are on a ship named Never Land when they are abducted by pirates, which is not entirely bad since they were going to become the slaves of a despotic king. Taken to a faraway island, they soon learn of the existence of a trunk full of "starstuff," the leftovers of falling stars, and set out make sure that the magical ingredients are kept away from evil doers. Deidre Root, writing in Kliatt, called the story "a rollicking good adventure," while New York Times contributor Michael Gorra wrote: "Pearson and Barry offer a deft combination of laughter and fear." Other collaborations with Pearson continued the series, including The Missing Mermaid, Peter and the Shadow Thieves, Escape from the Carnivale, and Cave of the Dark Wind.

In The Shepherd, The Angel, and Walter the Christmas Dog, Barry presents a Christmas tale about young Doug Barnes, who, in a first-person narrative, tells of his demotion to playing a mere shepherd as opposed to the Wise Man he portrayed in the Christmas pageant the year before. His relegation to a lesser role can be traced to the shattering of a vase he was supposed to present as a gift to the baby Jesus and replacing it with a Rolodex. Nevertheless, Doug perseveres, even as his old beloved dog dies and is replaced with a new one named Walter, who becomes his guardian angel. A Kirkus Reviews contributor called the book "a nostalgic Christmas fable [that] strikes an engaging balance between humor and heart."

Barry once told CA interviewer Jean W. Ross: "I always wanted to write when I was a kid; it just never occurred to me that you could have a job that didn't involve any actual work. When I wrote for my high school and college newspapers, I pretty much made stuff up…. I felt it would be fun to have a job like that where you could make stuff up and be irresponsible and get paid for it, but there were no openings for making stuff up when I got out of college, so I went to work for a small newspaper called the Daily Local News." Barry continued: "The result was that I wrote several years' worth of stories that nobody read but me, and sometimes even I didn't read all the way to the end of them. After a few years in this small-time newspaper business, I went briefly to the Associated Press. I really didn't like that. It was very restrictive." Once he turned from straight journalism to column-writing, things turned more interesting. "Just about anything's a topic for a humor column: any event that occurs in the news, anything that happens in daily life driving, shopping, reading, eating," Barry explained. "You can look at just about anything and see humor in it somewhere. The hard part is getting the jokes to come, and it never happens all at once for me. I very rarely have any idea where a column is going to go when it starts. It's a matter of piling a little piece here and a little piece there, fitting them together, going on to the next part, then going back and gradually shaping the whole piece into something." Barry added: "That's what writing is. That's why it's so painful and slow. But that's more technique than anything else. You don't rely on inspiration. I don't, anyway, and I don't think most writers do. The creative process is just not an inspirational one for most people. There's a little bit of that and a whole lot of polishing." Barry went on to comment: "I don't worry about running out of ideas, drying up. The world's too full of things to write about for that to ever happen."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Barry, Dave, in an interview with Jean W. Ross, Contemporary Authors, Volume 134, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), pp. 20-25.

PERIODICALS

Atlanta Journal-Constitution, September 19, 1999, Phil Kloer, review of Big Trouble, p. L15; October 17, 2002, Bob Longino, review of Tricky Business, p. E1.

Book, November-December, 2002, Steve Wilson, review of Tricky Business, p. 87.

Booklist, August, 1999, Brad Hooper, review of Big Trouble, p. 1984; August, 2000, Gilbert Taylor, review of Dave Barry Is Not Taking This Sitting Down!, p. 2068; August, 2001, Kristine Huntley, review of Dave Barry Hits below the Beltway: A Vicious and Unprovoked Attack on Our Most Cherished Political Institutions, p. 2043; September 1, 2002, Kristine Huntley, review of Tricky Business, p. 4; July, 2003, Kristine Huntley, review of Boogers Are My Beat: More Lies, but Some Actual Journalism, p. 1842.

Entertainment Weekly, September 10, 1999, L.S. Klepp, review of Big Trouble, p. 143; April 12, 2002, Lisa Schwarzbaum, review of Big Trouble, p. 49.

Houston Chronicle, September 19, 1999, Jim Barlow, review of Big Trouble, p. 23.

Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 2001, review of Dave Barry Hits below the Beltway, p. 1180; August 15, 2002, review of Tricky Business, p. 1155; July 15, 2003, review of Boogers Are My Beat, p. 960; September 1, 2006, review of The Shepherd, The Angel, and Walter the Christmas Dog, p. 859.

Kliatt, September, 2006, Deirdre Root, review of Peter and the Starcatchers, p. 30.

Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, October 9, 2002, Charles Matthews, review of Tricky Business, p. K7414; November 6, 2002, Chauncey Mabe, review of Tricky Business, p. K0634.

Library Journal, September 15, 1999, A.J. Anderson, review of Big Trouble, p. 110; September 15, 2000, Joe Accardi, review of Dave Barry Is Not Taking This Sitting Down!, p. 74; October 1, 2001, A.J. Anderson, review of Dave Barry Hits below the Beltway, p. 97; September 15, 2002, A.J. Anderson, review of Tricky Business, p. 88; August, 2003, Necia Parker-Gibson, review of Boogers Are My Beat, p. 82.

Los Angeles Times, September 12, 1999, review of Big Trouble.

New York Times, April 5, 2002, Elvis Mitchell, review of Big Trouble, p. E10; October 6, 2002, John Leland, review of Tricky Business, p. 2; October 14, 2002, Christopher Buckley, review of Tricky Business, p. E1; November 14, 2004, Michael Gorra, review of Peter and the Starcatchers.

New York Times Book Review, October 9, 1988, Alison Teal, review of Dave Barry's Greatest Hits, p. 14; June 18, 1989, Richard Lingeman, review of Dave Barry Slept Here, p. 11; October 25, 1992, Robert J. Collins, review of Dave Barry Does Japan = Deibu Bari ga "Nihon o Suru," p. 17.

Publishers Weekly, July 19, 1999, review of Big Trouble, p. 180; September 4, 2000, review of Dave Barry Is Not Taking This Sitting Down!, p. 94; September 9, 2002, review of Tricky Business, p. 42; October 21, 2002, Daisy Marylea, review of Tricky Business, p. 20; June 23, 2003, review of Boogers Are My Beat, p. 56; September 15, 2003, John F. Baker, "Authors Team Up for Kids' Book," p. 14.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 5, 2002, Harper Barnes, review of Big Trouble, p. E3.

School Library Journal, February, 2002, Pam Johnson, review of Dave Barry Hits below the Beltway, p. 155.

Time, July 3, 1989; October 4, 1999, interview with Barry, p. 111.

Washington Post, June 12, 1989, John Sladek, review of Dave Barry Slept Here.

Washington Post Book World, November 8, 1992, Jonathan Rauch, review of Dave Barry Does Japan, p. 9.