Joseph Monninger, the author of more than 30 books, many for children and young adults, has died at 71, publisher Steerforth Press announced in a news release.
Monninger first started publishing books in the early 1980s, after serving in the Peace Corps for two years. His early works include The Family Man, The Summer Hunt, and New Jersey.
He later turned his attention to books for younger readers, including Baby, Hippie Chick, Wish, and Finding Somewhere, and to works of nonfiction, such as Home Waters: Fishing With an Old Friend, A Barn in New England: Making a Home on Three Acres, and Two Ton: One Fight, One Night: Tony Galento v. Joe Louis.
In 2021, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. “We all know we’re going to die, but nobody really accepts it,” he told the Concord Monitor of New Hampshire. “We almost have to repress that knowledge to live a healthy, forward-looking life. If you dwelled on it, you’d be paralyzed. To me, suddenly, I had that recognition: Today’s the day I’m told most likely how I’m going to die.”
In 2023, he wrote about his diagnosis in a memoir, Goodbye to Clocks Ticking: How We Live While Dying. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus called the book “a poignant, instructive account of reckoning with a terminal illness.”
“Goodbye to Clocks Ticking drove home for me the simple fact that we are all dying, every minute of every day, in ways that have enriched my existence immeasurably,” Steerforth Press senior editor Chip Fleischer said in a statement. “I will be forever grateful for his example, and for his friendship."
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
