Children Theodora Eugenia Cohen | ||
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Education University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign Nominations Lambda Literary Award for Children's/Young Adult, Stonewall Book Awards - Israel Fishman Non-Fiction Award Books The encyclopedia of monsters, Curses - Hexes and Spells, Phone call from a ghost, Civil War ghosts, Southern fried rat & other gru Similar Philippe Askenazy, Olivier Blanchard, Nick Trakakis, Patrick Artus, Thomas Piketty | ||
Daniel Edward Cohen (born March 12, 1936 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American non-fiction writer who has produced over one-hundred books, mainly for young audiences.
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Biography
Cohen attended the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where he graduated with degree in journalism in 1958. After graduation he worked as a proofreader at Time Inc. before becoming an editor for Science Digest. In 1969 he moved to upstate New York with his wife, Susan Handler Cohen, to begin a career as a freelance children’s writer. The couple had one daughter, named Theodora.
Career
Cohen is well known for his books about UFOs, ghosts, psychic phenomena, cryptozoology, and the occult. Though Cohen is a self-described skeptic and onetime member of CSICOP, his books on paranormal phenomena take a more light-hearted, open-minded stance. Some of these books include The World of UFOs (1978), The Encyclopedia of Monsters (1981), The Great Airship Mystery (1981), How to Test Your ESP (1982), Phone Call from a Ghost (1988), Ghostly Tales of Love and Revenge (1992), and The Ghost of Elvis and Other Celebrity Spirits (1994). Cohen is also the author of the controversial Curses, Hexes and Spells (1974), which has appeared on several “banned books” lists due to its perceived advocacy of magic and witchcraft. Curses, Hexes, and Spells is number 73 on the American Library Association's list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000.
Cohen has written on numerous other topics, including sports, history, dinosaurs, nature, technology, and folklore.
He and his wife, Susan, currently live in Middle Township, New Jersey. By 2011 Cohen had suffered a stroke.
Pan Am 103
Cohen's daughter, Theodora, died in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103. He and his wife Susan cowrote a book about it, entitled Pam Am 103: The Bombing, The Betrayals, and a Bereaved Family's Search for Justice. They frequently advocate for the victims in the press as well.
In August 2009, Daniel and Susan Cohen decried the release of the bomber on grounds of compassion, saying "I cannot imagine having compassion for a mass murderer and terrorist who killed 270 people." Susan Cohen, in The Daily Telegraph adds, "You want to feel sorry for anyone, please feel sorry for me, feel sorry for my poor daughter, her body falling a mile through the air." After the Gaddafi government lost control of Tripoli during the 2011 Libyan civil war, the Cohens expressed satisfaction.