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 Japanese 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 60,000 individuals selected from the populations of 215 nations and territories to be listed in Who’s Who in the World.
FROM THE AUTHOR - Updated December 28, 2011
In October 2011, after years of complaining to Penguin USA to no avail about a suspicious lack of forwarded mail from readers of my books, I decided to write to Oregon's US Senator Ron Wyden, hoping that he could contact someone on the higher levels of the US Postal Inspector's office or some other governmental investigative body.
Do you ever have the impression that you're being ignored?
As of late December, despite apparently steady sales of the US and various UK and British Commonwealth editions of Pooh and Piglet, and over twenty (I've lost track of the exact number) foreign-language editions of each title, I've received no forwarded reader mail in 2011.
To send an e-mail to Senator Ron Wyden, go to www.wyden.senate.gov and click on "contact". The Senator's Washington, DC office telephone number is (202) 224-5244.
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.