Gutman was born in New York City, moving with his family a year later to Newark, New Jersey, where on June 1, 1968, his father abandoned the family. His homemaker mother Adeline became a secretary and cared for Dan and his older sister, Lucy. After Vailsburg High School in Newark, Gutman graduated from Rutgers University with a degree in psychology in 1977 and started graduate school in that field until moving to New York City in 1980 to attempt a writing career.
Magazines
Gutman was a magazine editor and columnist. While editor-in-chief of pornographic magazineStag, he became a fan of video games and launched a video-game magazine. Gutman became the first employee of Video Game Player in 1982. He said, "I started a magazine about video games and suddenly I was an expert in video games. I started writing about them and computers. All for grownups. It took me a long time to realize that writing for grownups was not my thing. It took me a long time to realize that what I was good at was writing for kids." His column appeared regularly in various computer-related magazines, such as Genie Livewire.
Works
Dan Gutman has written over 70 books in the My Weird School series illustrated by Jim Paillot, plus related series including My Weird School Daze and My Weirder School. He has also written the Million Dollar series, featuring children who get a chance to win a million dollars in various sporting events; the Genius Files series; Tales from the Sandlot, a series of fantasy sports stories; and the Funny Boy series about an alien boy exiled to Earth. There have also been two about Judson Moon, who became President of the United States at 12; two about Qwerty Stevens and his time machine; and two about children who use a machine to do their homework. His standalone novels include They Came from Center Field, about extraterrestrials who want to learn baseball, Johnny Hangtime, about a young movie stuntman, and Race for the Sky, a historical novel in diary form about the Wright brothers. Gutman's Baseball Card Adventures series, illustrated by Steve Chorney, revolves around a child named Joe Stoshack who travels back in time to meet baseball legends. The first work is based on the premise of his finding a Honus WagnerT206 baseball card in the attic of his neighbor. Further books in the series feature Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Dorothy Maguire, Abner Doubleday, Satchel Paige, Jim Thorpe, Ray Chapman, Roberto Clemente, Ted Williams, and Willie Mays. The original story, Honus & Me, was made into the Turner Network TelevisionTV-movieThe Winning Season, starring Matthew Modine and Kristin Davis. Gutman's 1996 novel The Kid Who Ran for President was compared to the Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign by comedian John Oliver during an August 2016 segment of the show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. As a result, the book jumped in sales.
Personal life
Gutman met his future wife, Nina Wallace, an illustrator, when she did freelance work for Computer Games. They married in 1983. They have lived in Haddonfield, New Jersey, and New York City, and have two children, Sam and Emma.
Selected bibliography
Flashback Four series
"The Lincoln Project"
"The Titanic Mission"
"The Pompeii Disaster"
"The Hamilton-Burr Duel"
The Kid
The Kid Who Ran for President
The Kid Who Became President
Baseball Card Adventures
Honus and Me
Million Dollar
The Million Dollar Shot
The Million Dollar Kick
The Million Dollar Goal
The Million Dollar Strike
The Million Dollar Putt
My Weird School My Weird School Daze My Weirder School My Weird School Special My Weirdest School My Weird School: I Can Read My Weird School Fast Facts My Weirder-est School Qwerty Stevens books
