Thomas B. Sawyer has led an extraordinary life. With a name like Tom Sawyer, how could he not?! From illustrating comic strips to being the head writer of Murder, She Wrote, Tom’s autobiography, The Adventures of the Real Tom Sawyer, is a delightful memoir that takes the reader through all of the interesting moments in Tom’s life. Punctuated with humor and wit, reading this book felt like I was having a cup of coffee with Tom while he told me fascinating stories about his impressive career. If you’re a lover of writing, film, TV, or simply entertainment, Tom’s autobiography is absolutely worth reading. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I believe you will too.
Book Synopsis
He did not grow up on the Mississippi River, but he did illustrate comic strips, and he wrote produced, and directed films and television series that entertained hundreds of millions of people.
If you fondly remember Leonard Starr’s Mary Perkins Onstage, Stan Drake’s The Heart of Juliet Jones, Al Capp’s Li’l Abner, or Wonder Woman (1978), Chico and the Man (1978), All in the Family (1979), or Murder, She Wrote (1993-1996), then you’ve unknowingly been a Tom Sawyer fan for decades.
Discover Tom’s multiple careers, from helping illustrate comic books at the age of twenty-two for Stan Lee, to top advertising illustrator, to award-winning filmmaker, and on through his Emmy and Edgar-nominated career in Hollywood and beyond.
This Tom Sawyer does not whitewash any fences. You will delight to his entertaining memories of Jerry Orbach, Angela Lansbury, Mary Tyler Moore, Mickey Rooney, Leonard Goldberg, Leonard Starr, Stan Drake, Al Capp, Ruth Terry, Milton Caniff, Lila Garrett, Mort Lachman, Howard Hughes, Jack Klugman, Buddy Hackett, Dick van Dyke, and Steve Lawrence.
A terrific review of a terrific book!
Tom: You deserve every word of it and them
some. They don’t write books like yours anymore. So grateful you do. Loved
The Aventures of Tom Sawyer. Reading the book I took every one of those adventures with him. What a ride! Lila Garrett
Now these are the kind of writers I’d like to read about – too bad I’ll never know how Norman Katkov wound up story editing for Hanna-Barbera!