Dave Barry Books In Order

Publication Order of Peter and the Starcatchers Books

Publication Order of Never Land Books

Publication Order of Class Trip/The Worst Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Ridley Pearson Children's Books

Publication Order of Children's Books

Publication Order of Short Story Anthologies

Publication Order of Troll Target Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Born in 1947 in Armonk, New York, David McAlister Barry became famous as Miami Herald columnist Dave Barry. His column first appeared in the Herald in 1983, was widely syndicated by 1985, and won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1988. Many individual articles from the column were reprinted in Barry’s books.
Barry contributed humor pieces to the school newspaper and was elected “class clown” at Pleasantville High school in 1965. He earned a degree in English from Haverford College in 1969. As a student, he wrote for the Haverford News, where he later claimed to have been allowed to submit humor columns “”based loosely on my concept of what I would have found if I had done actual research” for news assignments.

His next job was writing for the West Chester (Pennsylvania) Daily Local News, where he said he was required to write ordinary, non-humorous news coverage of local government meetings between 1971 and 1974. Between 1974 and 1983 he worked as an English teacher and wrote short occasional articles.

Barry has published little about his personal life in the 1970’s. His first marriage didn’t last long. After attending a church-sponsored college and being exempt from military service in Vietnam on religious grounds, he chose to write from a non-religious viewpoint, explaining that anything written from a religious perspective risks “offending sincerely religious people, and then they come after you with machetes.” He also described his political position as critical of anyone in office. His second marriage lasted from 1976 to 1993.

In 1981, Barry’s witty yet sensitive article about the birth of his son was published in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Gene Weingarten, a Miami Herald editor and humorist, recognized Barry’s talent and offered him steady work in 1983.

Barry was quickly branded as America’s funniest living writer. Almost all of his collected columns and independent humor books became instant best sellers. He was invited to contribute articles to magazines from Boating to Reader’s Digest, and is featured in book-length anthologies like Pulling Our Own Strings, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and Best American Sports Writing.

Probably as a joke, Barry has called his column’s promotion of “International Talk Like a Pirate Day,” observed on September 19, his greatest achievement.

Between 1992 and 2012, Dave Barry was also the lead guitarist in a band called the Rock Bottom Remainders. The band consisted of successful authors who had been less successful musicians, including Mitch Albom, Roy Blount Jr., Matt Groening, Stephen King, Barbara Kingsolver, Ridley Pearson, Amy Tan, Scott Turow, and sometimes others. Despite occasional assists from Bruce Springsteen, Warren Zevon, and other successful musicians, Barry described the Remainders as “not musically skilled, but extremely loud.”

In 1996, Barry married Miami Herald sports writer Michelle Kaufman; their daughter was born in 2000.

A short-lived television series based on Barry’s columns, called “Dave’s World,” featured Harry Anderson as Dave Barry, with cameo appearances by Barry himself. A more successful movie was made from his novel Big Trouble. The 1999 novel became a 2002 movie starring Tim Allen, Rene Russo, and Patrick Warburton. Barry’s 1996 book, Dave Barry’s Guide to Guys, was made into a 2005 film, Dave Barry’s Complete Guide to Guys.

In 2004, Barry retired from writing regular columns. He continued writing books, a blog, and occasional feature articles.

Writings

Although fatherhood and teaching have been frequent themes in all Barry’s writing, aging or resisting the aging process seem to be even more inspiring. He consistently maintained an “immature little boy” fascination with wacky facts and gross-out jokes; one book is titled Boogers Are My Beat, and another is I’ll Mature When I’m Dead. He also accepted the job of rewriting the Hollywood legend based loosely on James M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. Although Barrie’s main characters are children who don’t get older, the literary voice in Peter Pan and Wendy and Peter Pan in Kensington Garden had become unbearably dated to many young readers and their parents. In Barry’s series, Peter and his friends have many additional adventures that make their story fresher, funnier, more satisfying to contemporary audiences, and full of potential for fresh new movies.

Dave Barry did not actually invent the phrase “I am not making this up,” but the wacky facts in his early columns prompted him to use it so regularly that one of his collections was titled Dave Barry Is Not Making This Up.

Barry is capable of writing seriously; he wrote a serious column in 1992, when his son was treated for injuries, and a few more in 2001 after the attacks on New York and Washington. However, when a reader suggested that he “mature” into serious journalism, Barry’s reply became the title of his next collection, Boogers Are My Beat. In other words, readers expected his writing to feature bizarre and grotesque news events, often involving explosions. His Guide to Guys distinguished “guys” from “women,” characterized as serious and empathetic, and “Real Men,” serious and tough; “guys” are more interested in games, gross-outs, and goofiness. He identified himself as a “guy” in 1996 and refused to “mature” in subsequent years.

Maintaining his “guy” image, although Barry’s novels for adults sold well, Barry has written more novels edited for teen and even pre-teen audiences. (His writing has a certain multi-generational appeal; adults read The Shepherd, the Angel, and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog, and teenagers read Big Trouble, Tricky Business, and Insane City.) His novels typically start with chains of events that seem completely unrelated until they crash into each other in a plausible, yet bizarre, climactic scene.

Another of the most popular themes in Barry’s columns was rock music. Columns on this theme grew into Dave Barry’s Book of Bad Songs. Another was what a fan described as “gift items that people would rather laugh about the idea of getting than actually get.” Columns on this theme grew into Dave Barry’s Gift Guide to End All Gift Guides, which, of course, grew into an annual feature at the Miami Herald web site.

Although Dave Barry in Cyberspace chronicled Barry’s early mistakes and reservations about online self-publishing, after retiring from regular column writing he published a popular blog through the Miami Herald. The blog has displayed some of Barry’s vintage columns, some of his occasional writing, many links to grotesque news stories (often featuring explosions) supplied by his friends, relatively few promotions of his books, and, of course, continuous promotion of the online version of the Herald. Barry’s fans in cyberspace never needed to miss an annual gift guide, “Year in Review,” book review, or other feature article written as only Dave Barry can write it. The Herald kept us posted on the writings of Barry’s old friends, such as Gene Weingarten and Joel Achenbach, as well.