George Herman

The Present More Than You Would Ever Want To Know About The Author George Adam Herman, Jr., was born April 12, 1928, in Norfolk, Virginia, attended parochial school in Maryland where he won 17 holy cards and set a national record for having his hands slapped by nuns wielding six-foot rulers. He attended high School in Maryland, won several writing awards and took first prize in the news-writing division at the Temple University Press Tournament in 1946 by sticking to the now-outmoded policy of putting what, where, when, why and how in the lead paragraph of every news story. In 1947 he looked up from his writing desk and discovered girls which, as Robert Frost might say, “made all the difference.” Mr. Herman graduated with a Bachelor of Philosophy Degree from Loyola University in Maryland, prodding his father to inquire, “You can make a living at this?” He couldn't. In the summers of 1947 through 1949, he attended the Boston College School of Expressional Arts in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, under the Rector's Scholarship in playwriting, which means he was occasionally permitted to share a trough with the football team. He served in the United States Army from 1950 to 1952 during the Korean Police Action which failed to even earn the official designation as a war. He graduated from Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. with a Master of Fine Arts Degree in June, 1954, and toured with their national theatre company playing Shakespeare and Moliere, seldom winning even in overtime. During this period two of his Irish musicals were performed at the Mayflower Hotel by the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick before President Eisenhower, Chief Justice Warren and several hundred friendly drunks. For 12 years he taught playwriting and was artist-in-residence at American universities, finally abandoning the cold northern states for Hawaii where for the next 16 years he served on the staff of the State Superintendent of Education, retiring in 1983, which caused Kilauea volcano to erupt in gratitude. While in Hawaii, he was also Artistic Director for the Commedia Repertory Theatre, theater columnist for Honolulu magazine and senior drama critic for the Honolulu Advertiser, setting a record for death threats. During this period, he won two international playwriting competitions, eight Kuma Kahua (New Stages) awards and when he embarked from Hawaii in his out-rigger canoe for Portland, Oregon, in 1983 the Hawaii State House of Representatives passed Resolution 834 commending him for “16 years of enhancing the quality of theater through his skillful efforts as an actor, director, playwright and as a perceptive, candid drama critic,” and then held a three-day luau to celebrate his departure. His play A Company of Wayward Saints (Samuel French Inc.) won the McKnight Foundation Humanities Award in Drama in 1963, is still in print and averages enough productions a year to keep his family in spinach salads. His first novel, Carnival of Saints. was written in 1993 at the age of 65 and was published by Ballantine (NY) in 1994. It was translated into German and Spanish, precipitating two revolutions and an economic collapse. It was also a finalist in fiction in the Oregon Book Awards and a national finalist in the Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Awards. His A Comedy of Murders and The Tears of the Madonna were published by Carroll and Graf in 1994 and 1996, inspiring many reviewers to ask why. As a professional actor, Mr. Herman has appeared on television in 19 Hawaii Five-O segments - usually as a hit man or a mad doctor - which says something about the perception of TV casting directors. He has performed over 200 stage roles ranging from Hadrian in Hadrian VII to Sir in Roar of the Greasepaint. He has appeared in television commercials for CBS-TV, Finance Factors, the Space Place, Kirin Beer, Frito-Lay, First Hawaiian Bank, Hawaiian Telephone, Love's Bread, and others; but only those named above paid his product placement fees. His ballet for children, Fraidy Cat, was premiered in October, 1997, by the Oregon Festival Ballet. For this organization he also appeared as Drosselmeyer in their annual Nutcracker and is credited with being the first actor to play the role as a humpbacked deaf-mute vampire. In June, 1998, another ballet for children, The Dancing Princesses, was premiered by the same company who then changed their name to the Pacific Festival Ballet. Mr. Herman denies his ballets had anything to do with this. In April, 1994, he was profiled by the Oregonian newspaper as “a moralist who likes a good joke.” He is the father of 9 children, parent to 12 and grandfather to 13. Well, he didn't write all the time!