Dave Pelzer

Dave Pelzer

David James (Dave) Pelzer (born December 29, 1960 in San Francisco, California) is an American author, best known for his 1995 memoir of childhood abuse, A Child Called "It". Pelzer is the son of a San Francisco fireman, Stephen Joseph Pelzer (1923–1980), who was of Austrian descent, and Catherine Roerva Christen Pelzer (1929–1992).

Pelzer was born in San Francisco, California, and was the third of five boys. He is now living in a different state with his second wife and kids. Pelzer wrote in his book that as a child, he was continually abused, mistreated, and beaten by his mother, who thought of it as a game. The book describes how his mother starved him, forced him to drink ammonia, stabbed him in the stomach, burned his arm on a gas stove, and forced him to eat his own vomit. His teachers stepped in on March 5, 1973, and 12-year-old Pelzer was placed in foster care. He joined the Air Force in 1979 and later became an author.