Welcome to
benjaminhoffauthor.com
The only official website –- and, in all probability, the only factually correct website –- for the author Benjamin Hoff.
Benjamin Hoff is the author
of The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet, both of which
explain the Chinese philosophy of Taoism through the characters created by A.A. Milne, and The Singing Creek Where the Willows
Grow, his biography of fellow Oregon author and charismatic nature teacher Opal Whiteley. All three books were Book-of-the-Month Club
selections. The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet were also selections of the
Quality Paperback Book Club.
From Benjamin Hoff, author of The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet, which have sold millions of copies worldwide, comes The Eternal Tao Te Ching (Abrams; December 7, 2021; US $24.99; Hardcover), a new translation of the Chinese philosophical classic, the Tao Te Ching.
The Eternal Tao Te Ching is the first translation to employ the meanings of the pre-writing brush characters in use 2,400 years ago, when the classic was written, rather than relying on the often-different meanings of the more modern brush characters, as other translations have done. Hoff points out in his chapter notes the many incidents of meddling and muddling that have been made over the centuries by scholars and copyists, and he corrects the mistakes and removes such tampering from the text. He also makes the provocative claim—and demonstrates by revealing clues in the text—that the Tao Te Ching’s author was a young nobleman hiding his identity, rather than the long-alleged author, the “Old Master” of legend, Lao-tzu. And his chapter notes shed new light on the author’s surprisingly modern viewpoint. With a selection of Benjamin Hoff’s lyrical color landscape photographs, this is a unique, and uniquely accessible, presentation of the Tao Te Ching.
The Tao of Pooh –- an international bestseller and the first Taoist-authored book in history to appear on bestseller lists –- was on The New York Times’ bestseller list for 49 weeks. Its international-bestseller successor, The Te of Piglet, was on New York Times for 59 weeks.
Both books brought the previously obscure philosophy of Taoism to the attention of mainstream America. (For a couple of examples of how mainstream: The Tao of Pooh was the subject of a question in a TV Guide crossword puzzle; The Te of Piglet was the subject of a question on the television show “Jeopardy.”)
For years they have been used as high school and college texts for classes in a wide variety of subjects, including science, business, philosophy, literature, and world culture.
They have been publicly endorsed by notables such as English pop-philosophy author John Tyerman Williams, American marketing communication guru Michael Ray, Wall Street investment counselor and author Bennet Goodspeed, and popular screen actress Julia Roberts.
The Singing Creek Where the Willows Grow, the book most often credited with the current worldwide interest in Opal Whiteley, won an American Book Award. It is the only book on Opal Whiteley popularly acknowledged as a “cult classic.”
In 2010, as part of the publisher’s 75th anniversary celebration, Penguin Books selected The Tao of Pooh to be one of the 75 books featured in the house’s printed promotion and public displays.
The descendant of two family lines of artists, engineers, and explorers, Benjamin Hoff has been a writer, an investigative photojournalist, a tree pruner, a songwriter, and a recording musician and singer. He has studied architecture, music, fine arts, graphic design, and Asian culture –- including Japanese Tea Ceremony (third certificate level), Japanese fine-pruning methods (two years of apprenticeship), and the comparatively esoteric martial-art form of T’ai Chi Ch’uan (four years of instruction, including a year of Ch’i Kung).
He attended Sylvan School, West Sylvan Middle School, Benson Polytechnic, Lincoln High School (the latter two in Portland), the University of Oregon in Eugene, the Museum Art School (now the Pacific Northwest College of Art) in Portland, and The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, from which he graduated with a B.A. degree.
From his father –- a scholar and collector of Asian art, and a close friend of the landscape painter Chiura Obata –- he gained a familiarity with and a love of Eastern ways; from his mother’s English/Irish/Welsh family background, he gained a familiarity with and a love of British literature and culture. These East/West influences eventually came together in the writing of The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet.
Benjamin Hoff enjoys playing classical guitar, composing music, photographing nature, and “improving things.” At present, he is designing a line of revolutionary solidbody electric guitars and speaker cabinets.
Benjamin Hoff is listed in Who’s Who in America, and is one of only 55,000 individuals selected from the populations of 215 nations and territories to be listed in Who’s Who in the World.
In April 2018 he was awarded the 2018 Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. This award is bestowed upon less than 5% of Marquis Who's Who biographical listees.
February 14, 2024: I have decided to post an address here that readers of my books can send mail to. It can also serve to receive contributions that anyone might care to send to help me take legal action against Penguin and Abrams for my debilitating depression caused by years of their excessively autocratic behavior, including their complete retention of reader and professional mail addressed to me.
Until further notice to the contrary, his mailing address will be:
Benjamin Hoff
PO Box 38
Wilsonville, OR 97070
Due to an expensive divorce, rising costs for rent and other necessities, and years of publishers' rejection of my post-Pooh manuscripts (which, as some of those people remarked or strongly implied, they wouldn't publish because the manuscripts weren't about Winnie-the-Pooh), it's all I can do to pay for essential services -- and I can only manage to do that by repeatedly withdrawing money from what little is left of my retirement funds. It's clear to me by now that without legal representation, I will never be granted access to my reader or professional mail or compensated for the years of crippling emotional stress that those two publishers above all have put me through.
Benjamin Hoff has not authorized any e-book editions of these books: The Tao of Pooh, The Te of Piglet, The Singing Creek Where the Willows Grow.
ARTICLES, ESSAYS, AND MORE BY BENJAMIN HOFF
- In the late 1960s, Benjamin Hoff helped to form United Travel Service, a unique-sounding rock/pop band. Click here for a link to utsrocks.com, for info on the band and their LP & CD releases.