Eric Hodgins

Eric Francis Hodgins (March 2, 1899 – January 7, 1971) was the American author of the popular novel ''Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House'', illustrated by William Steig.

Biography

Hodgins was born in Detroit, Michigan to the Episcopal clergyman Frederic Brinkley Hodgins and Edith Gertrude Bull on March 2, 1899. He attended the Trinity School in New York City, from which he graduated in 1917. After working for a year, he entered Cornell University in 1918 and transferred to Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Autumn 1919.

He graduated from MIT in 1922 with a chemical engineering degree. While at MIT, he was editor of ''VooDoo'', the student humor magazine. After graduation, he was managing editor of '' Technology Review'' until 1927. From 1927-29, he was editor of '' The Youth's Companion''. In 1929, he became an advertising salesman and then associate editor for ''Redbook''. In 1933, he became associate managing editor of ''Fortune'' magazine, promoted to managing editor in 1935 and publisher from 1937-41. From 1941-46 he was a vice-president of Time Inc. While at ''Fortune'', he wrote an exposé of the European munitions industry, published in March 1934 as "Arms and the Men". He resigned from Time Inc. in 1946 to become a full-time writer.

In 1930, he married Catherine Carlson, who had been an editorial assistant at ''The Youth's Companion''. She died on January 20, 1933 while giving birth to their son, Roderic. In 1936, he married Eleanor Treacy, an art editor at ''Fortune'', with whom he had a daughter, Patricia.

From 1929-32, he wrote several books on aviation and transportation with Frederick Alexander Magoun, who had been an instructor at MIT when Hodgins was a student there. In April 1946, he wrote an article for ''Fortune'' called "Mr. Blandings Builds His Castle", a fictional account of the real-life troubles he encountered while building a house in New Milford, Connecticut. Later that year, he turned the article into a book, ''Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House'', which was a best-seller. The novel was adapted as a popular movie of the same name, starring Cary Grant and Myrna Loy.

In real life, the house was completed in 1939 but was so expensive (costing $56,000 while the original budget was $11,000), that Hodgins was forced to sell it in 1945 for $38,000 to John Allard, a retired Air Force general. Hodgins unsuccessfully tried to buy the house back after receiving $200,000 from movie rights to the book. In 1953, the house was sold to Ralph Gulliver who gave it to his son Jack in 1972. In 1980, the house was sold to the author and composer Stephen Citron and his wife, the biographer and novelist Anne Edwards. In 2004, the house was sold for $1.2 million.

His next novel was a sequel called ''Blandings' Way'' about a liberal man working in advertising who wanted to do good but was accused of being a Communist. He thought it was a better book, but it was overshadowed by the success of the earlier one.

On January 8, 1960, he suffered a stroke. He described the stroke and long recovery in ''Episode: Report On the Accident Inside My Skull'', published in 1964. It received the Howard W. Blakeslee Award from the American Heart Association. At the time of his death in 1971, he was writing an autobiography that was published posthumously as ''Trolley to the Moon: An Autobiography''

Works

Novels

''Blandings'' series:
# ''Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House'' (1946), illustrated by William Steig,
# '' Blandings' Way'' (1950),

Short stories

* "Mr. Blandings Builds His Castle" (1946), expanded into novel ''Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House''

Non-fiction

;Autobiographies:
* ''Episode: Report On the Accident Inside My Skull'' (1964), , memoirs
* ''Trolley to the Moon: An Autobiography'' (1973), , published posthumously

;History:
* ''Sky High: The Story of Aviation'' (1929), co-authored with Frederick Alexander Magoun,
* ''A History of Aircraft'' (1931), co-authored with Frederick Alexander Magoun,
* ''Behemoth: The Story of Power'' (1932), co-authored with Frederick Alexander Magoun,
* ''Ocean Express: The Story of the Bremen and the Europa'' (1932),
* ''The span of Time: A primer history of Time Incorporated'' (1946),

;Society:
* ''Enough Time?: The Pattern of Executive Life'' (1959),

Adaptations

* ''Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House'' (1948), film directed by H. C. Potter, based on novel ''Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House''
* '' The Money Pit'' (1986), film directed by Richard Benjamin, based on novel ''Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House''
* ''Drömkåken'' (1993), film directed by Peter Dalle, based on novel ''Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House''
* ''Are We Done Yet?'' (2007), film directed by Steve Carr, based on novel ''Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House''

References

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hodgins, Eric
1899 births
1971 deaths
Fortune (magazine) people
Writers from Detroit
MIT School of Engineering alumni
American male novelists
20th-century American novelists
20th-century American male writers
Novelists from Michigan