Up for auction "Wicked" Gregory Maguire Hand Signed 3X5 Card W/ Drawing. 

ES-2212

Gregory

Maguire (born June 9,

1954) is an American novelist. He is the author of Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, Confessions of an Ugly

Stepsister, and several dozen other novels for adults and

children. Many of Maguire's adult novels are inspired by classic children's

stories; Wicked transforms the Wicked Witch of the West from L. Frank Baum's 1900 book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and

its 1939 film adaptation into

the misunderstood green-skinned Elphaba Thropp. The blockbuster 2003 Broadway musical Wicked was inspired by Maguire's first novel for

adults. Written by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman, the musical is currently Broadway's fifth

longest-running show (surpassing Les Misérables on

October 28, 2019), and at its peak nine companies ran simultaneously around the

world.

Maguire, born and raised in Albany, New York, is the middle child of seven. Schooled in

Catholic institutions through high school, he received a BA in English and Art

from the State

University of New York at Albany, an MA in Children's Literature

from Simmons College, and a PhD in English and American Literature from Tufts University. His doctoral thesis was about English-language

fantasy written for children between 1938 and 1988. He was a professor and co-director at the Simmons College Center for the Study of Children's Literature from

1979 to 1986. In 1987, Maguire co-founded a nonprofit educational charity,

Children's Literature New England, Inc., and was co-director for twenty-five

years. He has been a board member of the National

Children's Book and Literacy Alliance, and has served on boards at

the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Board of Associates of the Boston

Public Library, the Concord Free Press, among others. Maguire has lived in

Dublin, London, and the greater Boston area. While he published his first novel

for children at the age of 24, his professional life includes commitments to

literacy and literature education alongside his creative work. He met the

American painter Andy Newman in 1997, and in 1999 they adopted the first of

their three children. Two others followed in 2001 and 2002. Maguire and Newman

were married in June 2004, shortly after gay marriage became legal in

Massachusetts. The novelist is an occasional reviewer for the Sunday New York

Times Book Review. He has contributed and performed original material for NPR's

"All Things Considered" and has lectured widely around the world on

literature and culture. Maguire and his family were featured on

"Oprah" and he was the subject of a Sunday New York Times Magazine

profile by Alex Witchel. His adult novels regularly make New York Times and

national bestseller lists. Egg & Spoon (2014), a fantasy

for young adults, was a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book and is under option

by Universal Studios; After Alice (2015), a novel for adults,

is published on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Alice's

Adventures in Wonderland. As of 2015, Maguire is a Roman Catholic.