Died 29 August 2012 | ||
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Books Stolen Lightning: The Social Theory of Magic | ||
Daniel Lawrence O'Keefe (February 25, 1928 – August 29, 2012) was an American writer.
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Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, he received a B.A. from Columbia in 1949, an M.A. from Columbia, and a PhD. from the New School for Social Research. At Columbia, he was national president of Junior Achievement, and was personally recruited by DeWitt Wallace, founder of Reader's Digest, where he was an editor for over thirty years and worked with freelancers, such as Ray Bradbury and award-winning poet Czeslaw Milosz.
O'Keefe invented Festivus, an annual secular holiday now celebrated on December 23. His son, Dan O'Keefe, a writer for Seinfeld, incorporated the family holiday into a 1997 episode of the program, and in 2005, published The Real Festivus.
O'Keefe published the book Stolen Lightning: The Social Theory of Magic in 1982. A Los Angeles Times book review called this book "a spectacular synthesis of sociology, anthropology, and psychoanalysis... a tour de force of accessible scholarship". The New York Times Book Review said it is "a powerful explication of how deeply magic is embedded in society", and Commonweal dubbed it "a potential classic".
Festivus
O'Keefe invented Festivus in 1966 to commemorate his wife's and his first date. Their son, Dan, later worked as a screenwriter for Seinfeld, and during the 1997 season, introduced Festivus to the public in a Seinfeld episode named "The Strike".
Family
He married his wife Deborah in 1963. She is the author of numerous magazine articles, as well as the books Good Girl Messages and Readers in Wonderland, works of literary criticism.
O'Keefe's son Laurence is a composer, lyricist, and book-writer of musicals, including Batboy and Heathers, and collaborated on the Broadway show Legally Blonde with his wife, Nell Benjamin. His son Markham has written for David Letterman, Bill Maher, sitcoms including Newsradio and a show he created, The O'Keefes, and collaborated with Steven Koren on the screenplays for Bruce Almighty and Click.