Daniel O'Keefe (writer)

Daniel Lawrence O'Keefe (February 25, 1928 – August 29, 2012) was 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,[1] 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.[2] His son, Dan O'Keefe, a writer for the Seinfeld[3] television show, incorporated the family holiday into a 1997 episode of the program,[1] and in 2005 published The Real Festivus.[4]

O'Keefe published the book Stolen Lightning: The Social Theory of Magic in 1982.[5] A Los Angeles Times book review called this book "a spectacular synthesis of sociology, anthropology, and psychoanalysis... a tour de force of accessible scholarship." [6] The New York Times Book Review said it is "a powerful explication of how deeply magic is embedded in society,"[7] and Commonweal dubbed it "a potential classic." [8]

Festivus

Main article: 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 the American television show Seinfeld, and during the 1997 season introduced Festivus to the public in a Seinfeld episode named "The Strike".

Family

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.

References

  1. 1 2 Allen Salkin (December 19, 2004). "Fooey to the World: Festivus Is Come". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-12-23.
  2. ↑ "DANIEL L. O'KEEFE Obituary: View DANIEL O'KEEFE's Obituary by New York Times". Legacy.com. 1928-02-25. Retrieved 2012-09-30.
  3. ↑ Dan O'Keefe at the Internet Movie Database
  4. ↑ O'Keefe, Dan. The Real Festivus. Perigee, 2005.
  5. ↑ Mark Glazer (January 2, 1983). "How Magic Works". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-12-23.
  6. ↑ "review cited on front cover of Vintage Books 1983 edition".
  7. ↑ Glazer, Mark (January 2, 1983). "How Magic Works". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 December 2013.
  8. ↑ "cited on back cover of Vintage Books 1983 edition".
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