Donald J. Sobol

Donald J Sobol is an inspirational and children fiction author best known for writing the “Encyclopedia Brown” series of novels. Sobol was born in New York City and went to the NYC Ethical Culture Fieldston School from where he graduated in 1942. During the Second World War, he served in the Pacific Theater in the Army Corps of Engineers. After the end of the war, he went back to school attending Oberlin College and graduating with a bachelor’s degree. Post-graduation he became a copy boy and worked several years for the New York Sun before he moved up the ranks to become a reporter. In 1949, he was offered a job at the New York Daily News a job that he held for two years before he left to go become a buyer at the New York office of Macy’s. He then quit and moved to Florida to become a full-time author. In 1959, he started writing the “Two Minute” series which was a syndicated series that proved very popular as it ran for more than a decade. In 1963, he penned the first of the “Encyclopedia Brown” series “Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective.” Since he started publishing, the novels have been printed every year and have now been translated into more than a dozen languages.