William Kotzwinkle

William Kotzwinkle
Born
Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S.
OccupationsNovelist, screenwriter
Spouse
Elizabeth Gundy
​
(m. 1965)​
Websitewww.kotzwinkle.com

William Kotzwinkle (born November 22, 1938, or 1943 according to different sources[1]) 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,[2] 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.[3]

He has been married to author Elizabeth Gundy since 1970.[1]

Personal life

William Kotzwinkle was the only child of William John Kotzwinkle and Madolyn Murphy Kotzwinkle.[4] He attended Rider College and later Penn State, where he began writing poetry as a literature major, until he was dismissed from the university.[4] 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.[4]

In 1970, he married Elizabeth Gundy and the two moved to New Brunswick.[4] 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.[5] The novelization was published in 1982 and became the best-selling novel of the year.

List of works

Novels

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial series

  • E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) (based on Melissa Mathison's screenplay)
  • E.T.: The Book of the Green Planet (1985)

Collections

  • Elephant Bangs Train (1971) (short stories)
  • The Oldest Man: And Other Timeless Stories (1971) (juvenile)
  • Trouble in Bugland: A Collection of Inspector Mantis Mysteries (1983) (juvenile)
  • Jewel of the Moon (1985) (short stories)
  • Hearts of Wood: And Other Timeless Tales (1986) (juvenile)
  • The Hot Jazz Trio (1989) (3 short stories, illustrated by Joe Servello)
  • Tales from the Empty Notebook (1995) (juvenile)
  • Double Trouble in Bugland: A New Collection of Inspector Mantis Mysteries (2016) (juvenile)

Short stories

  • "Follow The Eagle" (1971)
  • "The Curio Shop" (1980)
  • "Fragments of Papyrus from the Temple of the Older Gods" (1988)
  • "Blues on the Nile: A Fragment of Papyrus" (1989)
  • "Boxcar Blues" (1989)
  • "Django Reinhardt Played the Blues" (1989) (story about Django Reinhardt)
  • "Horse Badorties Goes Out" (1973)
  • "The Magician"

Children's books

  • The Firemen (1969)
  • Elephant Boy: A Story of the Stone Age (1970)
  • The Day the Gang Got Rich (1970)
  • The Ship That Came Down The Gutter (1970)
  • The Return of Crazy Horse (1971)
  • The Supreme, Superb, Exalted and Delightful, One and Only Magic Building (1973)
  • Up the Alley with Jack and Joe (1974)
  • The Leopard's Tooth (1976)
  • The Ants Who Took Away Time (1978)
  • Dream of Dark Harbor: A Ghostly Sea Story (1979)
  • The Nap Master (1979)
  • E. T. The Extra-Terrestrial Storybook (1982)
  • The World Is Big and I'm So Small (1986) ISBN 0-517-56310-X
  • The Empty Notebook (1990)
  • The Million-Dollar Bear (1995)
  • Walter the Farting Dog series (with Glenn Murray and Elizabeth Gundy)[7] (illustrations by Audrey Colman)
    • Walter the Farting Dog (2001) ISBN 1-58394-053-7 (published in Latin as Walter, Canis Inflatus (2004) ISBN 1-58394-110-X)
    • Walter the Farting Dog: Trouble at the Yard Sale (2004) ISBN 0-525-47217-7 (also published as Walter the Farting Dog Farts Again)
    • Rough Weather Ahead for Walter the Farting Dog (2005) ISBN 0-525-47218-5
    • Walter the Farting Dog goes on a Cruise (2006) ISBN 0-525-47714-4
    • Walter The Farting Dog: Banned From the Beach (June 21, 2007) ISBN 0-525-47812-4

Screenplays

Notes

  1. 1 2 "Kotzwinkle". Pennsylvania Center for the Book. February 2010.
  2. ↑ "Winners". World Fantasy Awards. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
  3. ↑ "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Teacher's Notes" (PDF). Penguin Active Reading, Teacher Support Program, Pearson Education Limited. c. 2009. Retrieved June 30, 2010.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Lewis, Leon. "William Kotzwinkle." American Novelists Since World War II: Fifth Series, edited by James R. Giles and Wanda H. Giles, Gale, 1996. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 173. Gale Literature Resource Center, link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1200000322/LitRC?u=sddp_main&sid=bookmark-LitRC&xid=195a2331. Accessed 17 July 2026.
  5. ↑ "William Kotzwinkle." Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors, Gale, 2004. Gale Literature Resource Center, link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1000055700/GLS?u=sddp_main&sid=bookmark-GLS&xid=b1137022. Accessed 17 July 2026.
  6. ↑ "BLOODY MARTINI | Kirkus Reviews".
  7. ↑ Subsequent volumes identify Gundy as an uncredited contributor on the earlier books. The later books give her a co-author credit.
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