Kraft, Eric (Lance) 1944-

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KRAFT, Eric (Lance) 1944-

PERSONAL: Born October 29, 1944, in Bay Shore, NY; son of Edward Daniel, Jr., and Dolores (Lyman) 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 North 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, The Authors Guild.

AWARDS, HONORS: National Endowment for the Arts fellowship; John Dos Passos Prize for literature.

WRITINGS:

"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: The Story of Ella's Lunch Launch, Picador USA (New York, NY), 2002.

other

My Mother Takes a Tumble (novel), Apple-Wood, 1982, Warner Books (New York, NY), 1986.

Do Clams Bite? (novel), Apple-Wood, 1982, Warner Books (New York, NY) 1986.

Life on the Bolotomy (novel), Apple-Wood, 1983, Warner Books (New York, NY), 1986.

The Static of the Spheres (novel), Apple-Wood, 1983, Warner Books (New York, NY), 1986.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Passionate Spectator, St. Martins Press (New York, NY), 2004; Flying, Lying, or in the Wing, in progress.

SIDELIGHTS: Eric Kraft has been a writer since the early 1980s. However, by the end of that decade he 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 eight novels to him.

In Herb 'n' Lorna, 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 eight novels 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. He continues to write the further adventures of his hero, with Inflating a Dog: The Story of Ella's Lunch Launch, being published as recently as 2002.

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?, 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, 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, continues 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 is the most recent in the Peter Leroy saga, the plot of which 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 San Francisco Chronicle, called the series "perhaps the most ambitious and rewarding literary enterprise of our time."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Booklist, May 1, 1995, George Needham, review of At Home with the Glynns, p. 1552; June 1, 2002, Nancy Pearl, review of Inflating a Dog, p. 1686.

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 Magazine, October 1988, Gail Banks, "Love Story: Eric Kraft's Herb 'n' Lorna 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.

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?, p. 139; May 16, 1994, review of What a Piece of Work I Am, 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 Up-church, "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.