Robert Fulghum

Robert Lee Fulghum (born June 4, 1937) is an American author.

Early career

He has worked as a Unitarian Universalist minister (at the Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship in Bellingham, Washington from 1960–64,^[1] and the Edmonds Unitarian Universalist Church in Edmonds, Washington amongst other communities well into the 1980s).

During this same period he taught drawing, painting, and philosophy at the Lakeside School in Seattle. Fulghum is an accomplished painter and sculptor. He sings, and plays the guitar and mando-cello. He was a founding member of the authors' collective rock-and-roll band, "Rock Bottom Remainders". Previous to his professional careers, he also worked as a ditch-digger, newspaper carrier, ranch hand, salesman for IBM, and singing cowboy. He grew up in Waco, Texas.

Writing

Fulghum came to prominence in the United States when his first collection of writings, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten (1988), stayed on the New York Times bestseller lists for nearly two years. Throughout the collection, subtitled "Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things", Fulghum expounds his down-home philosophy of seeing the world through the eyes of a child.

There are currently more than 16 million copies of his books in print, published in 27 languages in 103 countries. His prose style is very simple and direct, and finds life-affirming maxims in such mundane matters as zoos, leaf-raking, and dusting.

Performances

Fulghum has performed in two television adaptations of his work for PBS, and is a Grammy nominee for the spoken word award. He has been a speaker at numerous colleges, conventions, and public events across the United States and Europe. He has been a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist.

Novels

He has written a novel in three volumes, the first, titled Third Wish, was continued in Third Wish II, The Rest of the Story, Almost and completed with the third volume, "Third Wish, Granted". The novel was recently published in Czech, Slovak, and Hungarian. Negotiations are under way for further publication in Europe in Spanish, Italian, and German. The English-language edition was released February 2009.

Next novel "If You Love Me Still, Will You Love Me Moving? Tales from the Century Ballroom" was inspired by Fulghum's love of dancing and especially Tango (dance) and was first published in Czech (as "Drž mě pevně, miluj mě zlehka") in 2011.

Eventually his books of essays were transformed into two stage productions. The first shares the same title as his first book, and was conceived and adapted by Ernest Zulia, with music and lyrics by David Caldwell. The play is based on all eight books, and is an optional musical. The second is entitled "Uh-Oh, Here Comes Christmas". To date there have been more than 2,000 national and international productions of these plays.

Personal life

Fulghum has four children and nine grandchildren. He is married to the painter Willow Bader.^[2] He lives in Seattle, Washington, Moab, Utah, and on the Greek island of Crete.

Works

His collections include:

• All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
• It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It
• Uh-Oh: Some Observations from Both Sides of the Refrigerator Door
• Maybe (Maybe Not)
• From Beginning to End—The Rituals of Our Lives
• True Love
• Words I Wish I Wrote
• What on Earth Have I Done
• The Ongoing Adventures of Captain Kindergarten
• Hold Me Fast, Love Me Slow

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Robert Fulghum.

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Robert Fulghum

• Official website
• Edmonds Unitarian Universalist Church