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Robert Munsch
Illustration from
The Paperbag Princess
by Robert Munsch 
Cover illustration from Alligator Baby
by Robert Munsch
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Born in Pittsburgh in 1945, Robert Norman
Munsch was one of nine children raised in a large middle-class
American family. After high school he decided to join
the Jesuits to become a catholic priest. After a brutal
attack by a stranger while working as a volunteer at a slum
orphanage, Munsch began to lose his faith and after seven
years of training, resigned from the priesthood. After
marrying in 1973, the Munsch's left in search of a brighter
future and ended up in Coos Bays - a fishing community on
the rugged west coast of Oregon. It was there that Munsch
and his wife ran a daycare centre in the back room of a church,
and where he honed his skills as a storyteller. By 1976,
he was working at the University of Guelph Family Studies
Faculty where he lectured undergraduate students in early
childhood care and ran the nursery school lab on campus.
But it was his passion for storytelling that led his professors
to urge Munsch to try and get his stories published.
He finally relented and sent off numerous stories to a number
of Canadian publishers - Annick Press came through with a
commitment to four books. Munsch left the university
to become a full time storyteller but success did not come
overnight. It was seven lean years before his income
would start to go up again.
Today, Munsch makes over 200 personal appearances around
North America every year and receives 50 to 100 e-mails a
day - he reads every letter. Often these letters are
a source for another book. At present he has 34 books
in print and over 100 stories waiting to be published.
Original Air Date - November 7, 2000
Links
The
Official Robert Munsch Web site
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