Kraft, Eric 1944- (Eric Lance Kraft)

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Kraft, Eric 1944- (Eric Lance Kraft)

PERSONAL:

Born October 29, 1944, in Bay Shore, NY; son of Edward Daniel, Jr., and Dolores Kraft; married Madeline Canning, February 9, 1963; children: Scott, Alexis. Education: Harvard University, B.A., 1965, M.A.T., 1966. Hobbies and other interests: Sailing.

ADDRESSES:

Agent—Noah Lukeman, Lukeman Literary Management, Ltd., 101 N. 7th St., Brooklyn, NY 11211.

CAREER:

English teacher at public schools in Arlington, MA, 1966-67, and Winchester, MA, 1967-68; Ginn & Co., Lexington, MA, editor, 1968-71, and 1973-75; D.C. Heath & Co., Lexington, MA, editor, 1971-73; Kraft & Kraft (educational materials developers), Newburyport, MA, editorial director, 1975—.

MEMBER:

PEN New England, Authors Guild.

AWARDS, HONORS:

National Endowment for the Arts fellowship; John Dos Passos Prize for literature.

WRITINGS:

My Mother Takes a Tumble, Applewood (Carlisle, MA), 1982, Warner Books (New York, NY), 1986.

Do Clams Bite?, Applewood (Carlisle, MA), 1982, Warner Books (New York, NY), 1986.

Life on the Bolotomy, Applewood (Carlisle, MA), 1983, Warner Books (New York, NY), 1986.

The Static of the Spheres, Applewood (Carlisle, MA), 1983, Warner Books (New York, NY), 1986.

The Girl with the White Fur Muff, Applewood (Carlisle, MA), 1984.

"PETER LEROY" SERIES

Herb ‘n’ Lorna: A Love Story, Crown (New York, NY), 1988.

Reservations Recommended, Crown (New York, NY), 1990.

Where Do You Stop? The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences and Observations of Peter Leroy (continued), Crown (New York, NY), 1992.

Little Follies: The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences and Observations of Peter Leroy (so far), Crown (New York, NY), 1992.

What a Piece of Work I Am: A Confabulation, Crown (New York, NY), 1994.

At Home with the Glynns: The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences and Observations of Peter Leroy (continued), Crown (New York, NY), 1995.

Leaving Small's Hotel, Picador (New York, NY), 1998.

Inflating a Dog, Picador USA (New York, NY), 2002.

Passionate Spectator, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2004.

"FLYING" TRILOGY

Taking Off, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2006.

On the Wing, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Eric Kraft has been a writer since the early 1980s. However, by the end of that decade he had created a work of fiction that would launch him on a whole new adventure, one focused on a single character whose story would become so complicated that, to date, Kraft has devoted numerous novels to him.

In Herb ‘n’ Lorna: A Love Story, Kraft's character and protagonist Peter Leroy was born. The book was praised by critics and appeared on the front page of the New York Times Book Review, but Herb ‘n’ Lorna never made it to a second printing. Although all the novels in the series have been highly praised by academics and literary critics, and Kraft was awarded the John Dos Passos Prize for literature in recognition of his extensive project, his name remains somewhat obscure in the minds of the general public. This has not daunted Kraft's inspiration, despite the fact that he finds the lack of recognition inexplicable.

Peter Leroy lives in the fictional small town of Babbington, a village of eccentric people, and the basic theme of Herb ‘n’ Lorna is the exploration of the lives of Peter's maternal grandparents. In the second book in the series, Reservations Recommended, he develops a portion of the life of Peter's friend, Matthew Barber (alias Bertram W. Beath). Barber, the vice president of a successful toy company, has a nighttime profession, which he enjoys at least as much as his toy company—an undercover restaurant critic.

Little Follies: The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences and Observations of Peter Leroy (so far) was published in 1992. In this book, Peter recalls some of his earliest memories, which include his mother's falling from a lawn chair. He also explores the causes of his fear of clams, builds a radio receiver to explore the far reaches of the galaxy, falls in love with a girl whom he knows only as the girl with the white fur muff, and, as noted by a reviewer for Publishers Weekly, plays "an undressing game" in a closet with a young female friend. A reviewer in Time referred to this edition as "luminously intelligent fun."

Where Do You Stop? The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences and Observations of Peter Leroy (continued), in which Peter completes a junior high school science project thirty years too late, was also published in 1992. Two years later, Kraft came out with What a Piece of Work I Am: A Confabulation, in which Peter creates more complicated details of the life of an imaginary childhood friend. A Publishers Weekly reviewer stated that Kraft's fans will "enjoy the playful vitality" of Peter's new adventures.

At Home with the Glynns: The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences and Observations of Peter Leroy (continued) and Leaving Small's Hotel continue with Peter's post-World War II life. In a review for Newsweek, Malcolm Jones, Jr., quoted Kraft as saying: "My art is made of recollection, and revision, and wishful thinking"; and Robin Nesbitt, for Library Journal, pointed out that in Leaving Small's Hotel, Kraft illustrates this statement. In Kraft's seventh book in the series, in an attempt to attract more guests to their hotel, Peter's wife entices Peter to read to guests from his memoirs. In the process of recalling his actions and dreams throughout his life, Kraft's protagonist pulls his guests (as Kraft simultaneously pulls his readers) into a story filled with "hope, friendship, memories, and love," noted Nesbitt.

Inflating a Dog has a plot that Nancy Pearl, a Booklist reviewer, compared to a complicated circus juggling act. She also referred to the series on the whole as "comic masterpieces." Andrew Ervin, reviewing Inflating a Dog for the San Francisco Chronicle, called the series "perhaps the most ambitious and rewarding literary enterprise of our time."

In Passionate Spectator, Peter Leroy and his wife Albertine can be found in Manhattan, having relocated from Long Island, and Peter is now the owner of a business by the name of "Memoirs While You Wait." The idea is an extension of Peter's philosophy that one's entire life is merely the creation of a draft of one's memoirs. This of course leads to running commentary on everyone and everything that crosses Peter's path. Donna Seaman, writing for Booklist, commented that Kraft's effort is "as ebullient, canny, and entertaining as ever."

Kraft begins his new "Flying" trilogy with Taking Off, which was published in 2006. The book follows Peter Leroy through the summer of his fifteenth year when he built an aerocycle in his garage and preceded to ride it across the country, starting in Babbington, Long Island, where he lives, and continuing four thousand miles westward to New Mexico before turning around and heading back. Later, as an adult, he returns to visit Babbington with his wife after receiving a postcard from a friend, only to discover that thanks to an initiative by the city planners, the town looks just as it did during the 1950s. Christine Perkins, writing for Library Journal, found the book to be a "warmly nostalgic flight of fancy dotted with philosophical musings on the nature of fiction vs. reality, memory, and loss."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, May 1, 1995, George Needham, review of At Home with the Glynns: The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences and Observations of Peter Leroy (continued), p. 1552; June 1, 2002, Nancy Pearl, review of Inflating a Dog, p. 1686; July 1, 2004, Donna Seaman, review of Passionate Spectator, p. 1818.

Book Report, September-October 1992, Jim Walz, review of Little Follies: The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences and Observations of Peter Leroy (so far), p. 65.

Boston, October, 1988, Gail Banks, "Love Story: Eric Kraft's Herb ‘n’ Lorna: A Love Story Celebrates a Singular and Prodigal Passion," pp. 121-124.

Christian Science Monitor, July 9, 1998, Merle Rubin, "Getting away from It All," review of Leaving Small's Hotel, p. B5.

Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 2002, review of Inflating a Dog, p. 601.

Library Journal, May 1, 1990, Michele Leber, review of Reservations Recommended, p. 114; April 1, 1998, Robin Nesbitt, review of Leaving Small's Hotel, p. 123; June 15, 2006, Christine Perkins, review of Taking Off, p. 57.

Newsweek, May 14, 1990, Malcolm Jones, Jr., review of Reservations Recommended, p. 72; July 17, 1995, Malcolm Jones, Jr., review of At Home with the Glynns, p. 56.

New Yorker, October 26, 1992, review of Where Do You Stop? The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences and Observations of Peter Leroy (continued), p. 139; May 16, 1994, review of What a Piece of Work I Am: A Confabulation, p. 109.

Publishers Weekly, February 26, 1988, Sybil Steinberg, review of Herb ‘n’ Lorna, p. 178; March 23, 1990, Sybil Steinberg, review of Reservations Recommended, pp. 64-65; November 29, 1991, review of Little Follies, p. 42; April 18, 1994, review of What a Piece of Work I Am, p. 47; April 3, 1995, review of At Home with the Glynns, pp. 45-46; March 16, 1998, review of Leaving Small's Hotel, p. 52; April 29, 2002, review of Inflating a Dog, p. 38.

San Francisco Chronicle, May 10, 1998, Michael Upchurch, "Peter Leroy Grows Old and Despairing," p. 5; August 18, 2002, Andrew Ervin, review of Inflating a Dog.

Time, September 28, 1992, review of Little Follies and Where Do You Stop?, p. 75.