I.G. Edmonds, 90 (in 2007, juvenile author of "Ooka the Wise," aka "The Case of the Marble Monster," and 100 books)
leno...@yahoo.com
find out about this in January is that he died on Dec. 31, and I
updated my over-90-writers list on Jan.1, and Familysearch.org didn't
have the information yet. (That is, so far, practically the ONLY
website that indicates he's no longer with us!)
I corresponded with him briefly in 2007 - he was very nice and even
sent me a book. Since he was the "author of more than forty additional
novels under five other pseudonyms," I asked him what they were, but
he said they're "not suitable for a young lady." :-)
Annoyingly, there don't seem to be any obituaries of him! Here's what
I got from the librarians at oclc.org (they're the ones who responded
when I emailed the main library in Cypress):
"According to the SSDI below, Ivy Gordon Edmonds was born on February
15, 1917.....He died in Orange County, CA, on December 31, 2007, and
his last residence was in the 90630 zip code of Cypress.
"Amazingly, he did not get an obituary in the large daily papers of
the area (LA Times, Orange County Register, Long Beach Press-Telegram,
San Gabriel Valley Tribune), even though he was in the last few years
of Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the World. I could not find
any articles in magazines/journals after his death, either.
"The 2008 Who's Who in America says that he was born in Frost, TX. He
was the son of Ivy Gordon and Delia Louella (Shumate) Edmonds. He
married Reiko Mimura on July 12, 1956, and they had a daughter named
Annette (in 1961).
"He also wrote under the names Gene Cross and Gary Gordon.....
"I've run out of options here. My only suggestion would to call the
Orange County Public Library's Cypress branch......"
(end)
Some info about Judge Ooka:
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.books.childrens/browse_thread/thread/e71e722a713cd3f0/d824338c05780666?lnk=st&q=lenona+lady+edmonds#d824338c05780666
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ooka&search_type=&aq=f
(Three excerpts of the Japanese TV show that ran from 1970 to 1999 -
one video is about the case of "Ooka and the Wasted Wisdom")
Here's a thread I wrote on his 90th birthday:
......He was born and raised in Texas and went to school in Hillsboro,
about 50 miles
south of Dallas.
"Solomon in Kimono," about the tales of the 18th-century Japanese
judge Ooka Tadasuke (Oh-oh-ka Ta-das-kay) was first published in
Pacific Stars & Stripes, was eventually retitled "Ooka the Wise" and
then, in 1966, SBS published it as "The Case of the Marble Monster."
For those who care about accuracy, the afterwords in "Solomon in
Kimono" and "Ooka: More Tales of Solomon in Kimono" make it clear that
many stories the Japanese attribute to Ooka are actually fictional
Japanese folk tales - or sometimes not even Japanese, as in the Aesop-
derived tale of the Stronger Stick! However, the stories in COTMM
which DO seem to have a direct connection to Ooka are: Marble Monster,
Terrible-Tempered Tradesman, Tosuke's Tax, Willow Witness, Wasted
Wisdom, Suspect Statue, First Two Sons, and Death Decree.
There are other stories you will only find in the original books.
In Contemporary Authors: "I. G. Edmonds's interest in folklore began
when he was serving in the South Pacific during World War II.
Impressed by a native chief's story of how his atoll in the Eillice
Islands was created, Edmonds started collecting folk tales in the
countries he visited."
Back cover of CotMM:
"If you were a judge, would you:
-punish a man for stealing a SMELL?
-call in a WILLOW TREE as a witness to a crime?
-order a barber to give an OX a shave?
Judge Ooka does all these things.
And when Ooka commands, let the thief and the cheat beware!"
http://arb.nzcer.org.nz/nzcer3/english/written/3000-199/wl3197.htm
("Honest Thief" story)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3886473967607242883
( A 20-minute video - "Honest Thief" - "Junior Great Books Program" -
3rd graders read it aloud and discuss it.)
However, the teacher's constant mispronunciation will put your teeth
on edge.
http://www.story-lovers.com/listsdeathstories.html
("Ooka & the Death Decree")
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ooka_Tadasuke
(The real Ooka Tadasuke - includes "Stolen Smell" and "Suspect
Statue")
http://musea.us/MuseaMarch.html
("Tosuke's Tax")
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:apMx4dTdbfwJ:www.folktales.net/pdf/webooka.PDF+ooka+dog+punishment&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1
Includes "Dog's Punishment," "Real Mother," and "Pickpockets."
WRITINGS BY THE AUTHOR:
Solomon in Kimono (folklore), Pacific Stars and Stripes, 1956.
Ooka: More Tales of Solomon in Kimono, Pacific Stars and Stripes,
1957.
Ooka the Wise (folklore), Bobbs-Merrill, 1961, published as The Case
of the Marble Monster, Scholastic Book Services, 1966.
The Bounty's Boy, Bobbs-Merrill, 1962.
Hollywood RIP, Regency, 1963.
Isometric and Isotonic Exercises, Monarch, 1964.
Joel of the Hanging Gardens, Lippincott, 1966.
Trickster Tales (folklore), Lippincott, 1966.
Our Heroes' Heroes, Criterion, 1966.
Lassie and the Wild Mountain Trail, Whitman Publishing, 1966.
(With John J. Gribbons) Young Sportsmen's Guide to Gymnastics and
Tumbling, Thomas Nelson, 1966, published as Gymnastics and Tumbling,
Cornerstone Library, 1971.
Rat Patrol: Iron Monster Raid, Whitman Publishing, 1967.
Revolts and Revolutions, Hawthorn, 1969.
Khmers of Cambodia: The Story of a Mysterious People, Bobbs-Merrill,
1970.
Hot Rodding for Beginners, Macrae Smith, 1970.
The Possible Impossibles of Ikkyu the Wise (folklore), Macrae Smith,
1971.
Taiwan: The Other China, Bobbs-Merrill, 1971.
Motorcycling for Beginners, Macrae Smith, 1972.
The Magic Man (biography), Thomas Nelson, 1972.
Tailand: The Golden Land, Bobbs-Merrill, 1972.
Drag Racing for Beginners, Bobbs-Merrill, 1972.
Minibikes and Minicycles for Beginners, Macrae Smith, 1973, published
as Minibikes and Minicycles, Archway, 1975.
Mao's Long March, Macrae Smith, 1973.
China's Red Rebel: The Story of Mao Tse-Tung, Macrae Smith, 1973.
The New Malaysia, Bobbs-Merrill, 1973.
Rocket and Jet Engines: How They Work, Putnam, 1973.
Automotive Tune-Ups for Beginners, Macrae Smith, 1974.
Micronesia, Bobbs-Merrill, 1974.
Pakistan, Holt, 1975.
Ethiopia: Land of the Conquering Lion of Judah, Holt, 1975.
The Shah of Iran, Holt, 1976.
The Magic Makers, Thomas Nelson, 1976.
Motorcycle Racing for Beginners, Holt, 1977.
Allah's Oil: Mideast Petroleum, Thomas Nelson, 1977.
Second Sight: People Who Saw the Future, Thomas Nelson, 1977.
The Mysteries of Troy, Thomas Nelson, 1977.
Big U: Universal in the Silent Days, Barnes, 1977.
Islam: A First Book, Watts, 1977.
D. D. Home: The Man Who Talked to Ghosts, Thomas Nelson, 1978.
Buddhism: A First Book, Watts, 1978.
The Girls Who Talked to Ghosts, Holt, 1979.
BMX: Bicycle Motocross for Beginners, Holt, 1979.
The Magic Brothers, Thomas Nelson, 1979.
Hinduism: A First book, Watts, 1979.
Other Lives, McGraw-Hill, 1979.
Roller Skating: A Beginner's Guide, Archway, 1979.
(With William H. Gebhardt) Broadcasting for Beginners, Holt, 1980.
The Oscar Directors, Barnes, 1980.
Mysteries of Homer's Greeks, Thomas Nelson, 1981.
The Magic Dog, Lodestar, 1982.
Ooka the Wise: Tales of Old Japan, Linnet Books (Hamden, CT), 1994.
UNDER PSEUDONYM GARY GORDON
Rise and Fall of the Japanese Empire, Monarch, 1962.
Robert F. Kennedy, Assistant President, Monarch, 1962.
Sins in Our Cities, Monarch, 1962.
Sex in Business, Monarch, 1964.
The Anatomy of Adultery, Monarch, 1964.
Law and the Marriage Bed, Monarch, 1965.
IN OTHER LANGUAGES
Junglens Musketerer, Winters Foerlag, Kobenhaun, 1966.
DJEVELSK OPPDRAG, Magasinet fur Alle, 1966.
Moerder sind meine Beute, Verlag Friedrich W. Loh (Hamburg), 1969.
OTHER
Also author of more than forty additional novels under five other
pseudonyms.
(following post)
I forgot to mention that "The Possible Impossibles of Ikkyu the Wise"
is also based on a real Japanese figure - a clever monk.
"Trickster Tales" takes tales from all over the world, including a
very funny one about Turkey's Nasreddin Hodja. (Would that Edmonds had
made his own collection of the Hodja stories - most translations I've
seen are not that funny, even in a low-key manner.) There ARE bad
problems with TT, though - I was very annoyed when Cap O'Rushes'
clever simile about salt was presented in a less-famous story - yes,
the "new" protagonist was male. Not to mention a Buddha story, IIRC,
in which a complaining woman is made to realize how much worse her
life could be. Sounds OK? Well, one of her complaints is that her
husband beats her! Oh well, we can be sure Edmonds wouldn't include
that today. Just as he wouldn't have made his Ooka stories as sexist
as they were in the "Solomon in Kimono" books - I have no illusions
about women's status in any country prior to the 20th century, but
much of the sexism seemed suspiciously gratuitous. (The SBS publishers
cut out almost all of it for CotMM, but one line they didn't cut was
"It is a very wise law" in "Ooka and the Terrible-tempered Tradesman."
What were the publishers thinking? Especially when you realize what
the mother was upset about?)
Even so, CotMM has always been one of my absolute favorites for those
at the elementary level.
(next post)
> The Magic Dog, Lodestar, 1982.
I found out that book is about the 1890s magician "The Great
Lafayette" and his beloved dog. More on that here, if you like:
http://heritage.scotsman.com/myths.cfm?id=1904252005
Also, one webpage I forgot about (because it's long gone, sadly) was
about a class of elementary students who were read the Ooka cases and
were asked if they thought they could be judges. One student said, in
effect "yes, because I'm pretty good at telling when people are
telling the truth or not" but most said "no, because when you're a
judge, you can't take sides until the last minute. It would be too
hard!"
Lenona.
Brad Ferguson
<980a685e-5fd8-4aa8...@a1g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>,
<leno...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> "Amazingly, he did not get an obituary in the large daily papers of
> the area (LA Times, Orange County Register, Long Beach Press-Telegram,
> San Gabriel Valley Tribune), even though he was in the last few years
> of Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the World. I could not find
> any articles in magazines/journals after his death, either.
From what you've quoted here, it doesn't seem as if anyone ever
notified the press or anyone else (except for Social Security, which
issued a death-benefits check) that Edmonds had died. Under those
circumstances, I don't know why it's amazing that nobody's published an
obit for him.
leno...@yahoo.com
Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal, and Bronze Star Medal.
When I was tracking down his address in 2007, I tried going through
the Air Force website, but it was more complicated than I expected and
I don't like setting up passwords every time I want to find something.
So I called the local Air Force recruitment center instead - and they
told me about Zabasearch.com. (That site is pretty good at times, but
they don't always get the birth years right and they can take years to
get rid of old addresses! Anyway, it worked that time.)
Lenona.