Friends of Freddy

It was a bit over 40 years ago... I had written a letter to Dorothy Brooks, the widow of Walter R. Brooks. I wanted to know if there were any other fans of that most famous and adventurous pig, Freddy. I had a vague idea we could swap books. This was before the internet made finding out-of-prints easier.

Seven responses later, and a resolution was made to meet. Here we are, at a hotel outside of Roxbury, the Catskill village where Brooks lived and wrote his 26 book series on Freddy (and also created Mr. Ed the Talking Horse.) That's Dorothy in the middle front. I'm somewhere behind - see if you can identify me in my dewy youthfulness!

Forty year laters, Friends of Freddy is still going strong. One of our most recent endeavours was to start the process of bringing the series back into print. The gorgeous Outlook reprints are no longer being published and so it's up to us! We started with To and Again (later entitled Freddy Goes to Florida). The Wiese artwork was not available for this version but - as it turned out - we had a wonderful option right in our midst. Eric Shanower is an acclaimed artist and designer and he stepped up with some gorgeous new full-colour illustrations, plus this very inviting cover art. 

Friends of Freddy now has several hundred members and adherents. We have an active facebook page. Most of our meetings are by zoom including a bi-monthly book club, where we are working our way through the Freddy ouevre, title by title. Every other year (2026 being the next) we have an in-person convention, and book a gorgeous old caravansary - the Winter Clove Inn. 

One of the things we often do at our conventions is sit in a great big circle and read from Freddy books - sometimes adaptations. Attached here Freddy and Jimmy Witherspoon,  a group reading taken from Freddy and the Popinjay. This storyline - one of three or four in the novel - tells about a lonely neighbourhood boy, Jimmy Witherspoon. He craves friendship but doesn't know how to get it... and the animals come up with a novel way and philosophy for winning him over. 

And, finally, just a taste of the Wiese art, which graced the series. Kurt Wiese was one of the top book illustrators in mid-century American publishing, and his work is thrilling throughout.