Welcome to
benjaminhoffauthor.com

The only official website –- and, in all probability, the only factually correct website –- for the author Benjamin Hoff.

Benjamin Hoff is the author of The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet, both of which explain the Chinese philosophy of Taoism through the characters created by A.A. Milne, and The Singing Creek Where the Willows Grow, his biography of fellow Oregon author and charismatic nature teacher Opal Whiteley. All three books were Book-of-the-Month Club selections. The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet were also selections of the Quality Paperback Book Club.

The Tao of Pooh –- an international bestseller and the first Taoist-authored book in history to appear on bestseller lists –- was on The New York Times’ bestseller list for 49 weeks. Its international-bestseller successor, The Te of Piglet, was on New York Times for 59 weeks.

Both books brought the previously obscure philosophy of Taoism to the attention of mainstream America. (For a couple of examples of how mainstream: The Tao of Pooh was the subject of a question in a TV Guide crossword puzzle; The Te of Piglet was the subject of a question on the television show “Jeopardy.”)

For years they have been used as high school and college texts for classes in a wide variety of subjects, including science, business, philosophy, literature, and world culture.

They have been publicly endorsed by notables such as English pop-philosophy author John Tyerman Williams, American marketing communication guru Michael Ray, Wall Street investment counselor and author Bennet Goodspeed, and popular screen actress Julia Roberts.

The Singing Creek Where the Willows Grow, the book most often credited with the current worldwide interest in Opal Whiteley, won an American Book Award. It is the only book on Opal Whiteley popularly acknowledged as a “cult classic.”

In 2010, as part of the publisher’s 75th anniversary celebration, Penguin Books selected The Tao of Pooh to be one of the 75 books featured in the house’s printed promotion and public displays.

The descendant of two family lines of artists, engineers, and explorers, Benjamin Hoff has been a writer, an investigative photojournalist, a tree pruner, a songwriter, and a recording musician and singer. He has studied architecture, music, fine arts, graphic design, and Asian culture –- including Japanese Tea Ceremony (third certificate level), Japanese fine-pruning methods (two years of apprenticeship), and the comparatively esoteric martial-art form of T’ai Chi Ch’uan (four years of instruction, including a year of Ch’i Kung).

He attended Sylvan School, West Sylvan Middle School, Benson Polytechnic, Lincoln High School (the latter two in Portland), the University of Oregon in Eugene, the Museum Art School (now the Pacific Northwest College of Art) in Portland, and The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, from which he graduated with a B.A. degree in Asian Art.

From his father –- a scholar and collector of Asian art, and a close friend of the landscape painter Chiura Obata –- he gained a familiarity with and a love of Eastern ways; from his mother’s English/Irish/Welsh family background, he gained a familiarity with and a love of British literature and culture. These East/West influences eventually came together in the writing of The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet.

Benjamin Hoff enjoys playing classical guitar, composing music, photographing nature, and “improving things.” At present, he is designing a line of revolutionary solidbody electric guitars and speaker cabinets.

Benjamin Hoff is listed in Who’s Who in America, and is one of only 55,000 individuals selected from the populations of 215 nations and territories to be listed in Who’s Who in the World.

URGENT

Benjamin Hoff has not authorized any e-book editions of any of his books. Any company or organization that states or implies that it has his authorization for its e-book editions of his work is lying as well as stealing. Anyone purchasing or downloading any e-book editions of these books is violating the author’s rights.

FROM THE AUTHOR - Updated March 22, 2012

It has now been one year and three months since I’ve received any forwarded mail from Penguin USA. I’ve received no reply to my February 8 and March 1 letters to the Chairman and Chief Executive of the Penguin Group.

It would seem that as a result of my public complaints about Penguin (see my archived essay, “Farewell to Authorship”) I’m being treated to what I call Penguin Punishment, a form of “ignore the problem, shoot the messenger.” If the author makes a reasonable request or complains about a situation that needs to be fixed, he’s treated like a pest; if he dares to embarrass The Company, he’s locked out in the cold.

If it appears that I’m developing a case of Penguin Paranoia, I’d better state that I know for a fact that I’m not the only Penguin author who is treated dismissively, or worse. But I don’t feel comfortable about volunteering other people’s names, especially considering that most Penguin authors are considerably more vulnerable and defenseless than I am.

A bit of advice to aspiring authors: Beware of this publishing house. If these people treat me as they do, how do you think they will treat you?

Considering the millions-or-more dollars/pounds/etc. that The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet must have earned by now for Penguin USA / the Penguin Group / Pearson plc, and considering the, shall we say, extremely suspicious total absence of mail being forwarded to the author of those books, I believe that it would be economically and morally justifiable for the publisher to conduct a serious, thorough, and honest search for the missing author mail. Maybe other authors’ mail would be found in the search process.

Listed below are some contact names, addresses, telephone numbers, and e-mail addresses for the convenience of visitors to this website who wish to communicate their thoughts on this author-mail matter to Penguin USA, the Penguin Group, or Pearson plc.

By now, I’m convinced that I will never receive another piece of Penguin-forwarded author mail -- unless measures are taken that go beyond my complaining to Penguin and posting my letters about the situation on this website. So…

I would greatly appreciate it if readers of this update would tell Penguin USA / the Penguin Group / Pearson plc that they have no moral right to treat their authors in a dismissive or punitive manner. Some suggestions: Send an e-mail message every day -- the same message or a different one -- to each e-mail address listed below. Jam the corporate telephone switchboards. Camp out on Penguin’s/Pearson’s doorsteps. But please be polite about it. The point is to help someone, not hurt someone.

The timing for this sort of tactic could hardly be better -- 2012 is the Year of the Black Dragon (water dragon). Dragon years support against-the-odds campaigns to overturn rigid, unwieldy, complacent establishments and change the status quo; water-element years add the yin powers of flexibility and cunning.

From the Taoist martial arts point of view, if one makes it inconvenient for arrogant, cold-blooded people to treat other people badly, after a while they will learn to not do that.

In helping me, you will be helping far more than myself; you will be helping a class of bullied, exploited, largely defenseless people -- those who attempt to earn a living writing books in a publishing world run not by genuine, standalone publishing houses but by corporate divisions of corporate divisions.

In early February I wrote to the head of the Penguin Group, a division of Pearson PLC -- the largest book publisher in the world and the owner of Penguin USA -- about the long-standing apparent non-forwarding of my mail by Penguin USA.

On March 1, having received no reply, I tried again.

ADDITIONAL LINKS

Click here for correspondence regarding the Opal Whiteley biography DVD produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting and The Oregon Historical Society.

In the late 1960s, Benjamin Hoff helped to form United Travel Service, a unique-sounding rock/pop band. Click here for a link to utsrocks.com, for info on the band and their LP & CD releases.