Don Robertson (author)

Don Robertson (March 21, 1929 – March 21, 1999) was an American novelist.

Robertson was born in Cleveland, Ohio and attended East High School. He briefly attended Harvard and Western Reserve University (now Case Western Reserve University) before working as a reporter and columnist for The Plain Dealer, the Cleveland News and the Cleveland Press.

Robertson is probably best known for his trio of novels featuring Morris Bird III: The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread, The Sum and Total of Now, and The Greatest Thing That Almost Happened.

A movie adaptation of The Greatest Thing That Almost Happened aired on NBC in 1977 starring Jimmie Walker and James Earl Jones.^[1]

In 1987, Stephen King’s Philtrum Press published Robertson’s novel, The Ideal, Genuine Man.

Robertson won the Cleveland Arts Prize in 1966. The Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature presented him with its Mark Twain Award in 1991. The Press Club of Cleveland's Hall of Fame inducted Robertson in 1992, and he received the Society of Professional Journalist's Life Achievement Award in 1995.^[1]

Robertson died on his birthday in 1999, aged 70.^[1] He's buried in Logan, Ohio.

In April 2008, HaperCollins Publisher reissued The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread in paperback.^[2] Berkley Trade (a division of Penguin Books) reissued "The Sum and Total of Now" in August 2009, and HarperCollins Publisher reissued "The Greatest Thing that Almost Happened" in September 2009. The rest of Don Robertson's books are currently out of print.

Novels

• The Three Days (1959)
• By Antietam Creek (1960)
• The River and the Wilderness (published as Game Without Rules in the UK) (1962)
• A Flag Full of Stars (1964)
• The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread (1965)
• The Sum and Total of Now (1966)
• Paradise Falls (1968)
• The Greatest Thing That Almost Happened (1970)
• Praise the Human Season (1974)
• Miss Margaret Ridpath and the Dismantling of the Universe (1977)
• Make a Wish (1978)
• Mystical Union (1978)
• Victoria at Nine (1979)
• Harv (1985)
• The Forest of Arden (1986)
• The Ideal, Genuine Man (1987)
• Barb (1988)
• Prisoners of Twilight (1989)

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Dooley, Dennis (Fall 2002). "Don Robertson". Cleveland Arts Prize. http://www.clevelandartsprize.org/awardees/don_robertson.html. Retrieved 2008-11-19. 
2. ^ "The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread: A Novel by Don Robertson". http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780061452963/The_Greatest_Thing_Since_Sliced_Bread/index.aspx. Retrieved 2008-11-19. 

External links

• The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History

Persondata
Name	Robertson
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	March 21, 1929
Place of birth
Date of death	March 21, 1999
Place of death