William Kotzwinkle

Signed first printing of the novelization of Melissa Mathison's original screenplay by the World Fantasy Award-winning Kotzwinkle.

• William Kotzwinkle (American).
• New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, [1982].
• 246, [2] pages.
• Signed by Kotzwinkle on title page.
• In original unclipped ($12.95) dust jacket, designed by Marie Salveson.
• Bound in original half blue cloth with blue boards, gilt-stamped spine.

Tender tale of a "blossoming neurotic" who meets a ten-million-year-old telekinetic botanist at just the right time in a young boy's life for this important relationship to flower. Based on Melissa Mathison's screenplay for Steven Spielberg's staggeringly successful film, Kotzwinkle's novel follows the basic plot outline laid down for it but also adds a considerable and original emphasis on the perspective of young Elliott's mother, denied more than a peripheral role in the film, and on the inner experience of the alien itself: the Extra-Terrestrial's sensitivities, psychic powers, affinities, and self-image. "I see him as this scorned Chaplinesque figure who at the same time is some sort of redeemer," the author later explained. Already an acclaimed children's writer and fantasist before the collaboration, Kotzwinkle took his novelization work seriously: "I understood Steven's dreams."

Eady, "From Any Angle, E.T.'s Biographer William Kotzwinkle Is Not An Alien to Success," People.com (1985).