Richard and Florence Atwater - Richard

Richard

Richard Tupper Atwater (December 29, 1892–August 21, 1948) was a Chicago journalist. He wrote for a number of newspapers, including the Chicago Evening Post, the Chicago Daily News, the Chicago Tribune, and the Herald-Examiner. He contributed to the literary and arts magazine The Chicagoan. He also taught Classical Greek at the University of Chicago. He is probably best known as the co-author, with his wife Florence, of the book Mr. Popper's Penguins.

Richard Atwater's other publications include Rickety Rhymes of Riq, a book of poetry published in 1925; Procupius: A Secret History, a translation of the Greek story of Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora, published in 1927; Doris and the Trolls, a children's book published in 1931; and The King's Sneezes, A Children's Operetta with music by Jessie Thomas, in 1933.

Richard Atwater suffered a pulmonary embolism in 1934 which left him unable to speak or write. He had finished a manuscript of a book he called "Ork! The Story of Mr. Popper's Penguins", inspired by a documentary about Richard E. Byrd's Antarctic expedition that he had seen with his family in 1932. His wife Florence revised the book after he became disabled, and Mr. Popper's Penguins went on to become a children's classic.