(Hamilton, NY – Nov. 2014) The Friends of Freddy 30th annual convention will be held Nov. 7 through 9 at the White Eagle Hotel and Conference Center in Hamilton.
Walter L. Brooks had another famous character besides Mr. Ed. Freddy the Pig was a beloved character in literature in a series of illustrated novels that focused on Freddy and his adventures with his animal friends on the Bean Farm from between 1927 and 1958.
The Freddy series has been described as “Funny, beautifully written gems,” by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof. The Globe and Mail describes the characters of Bean Farm to be as “…sharply funny as the Marx Brothers [and]. . . as astute as Noel Coward.”
“The Friends of Freddy” is an international membership organization dedicated to the preservation of the writings of Walter R. Brooks and his literary alter ego, Freddy the Pig. The group also raises money for the Needy Libraries Book Donation Program, under which hundreds of Freddy books have been donated to libraries in New York State and around the country, to selected children’s’ hospitals, and to shelters.
The weekend’s activities will take place at a variety of Hamilton landmarks and will include a banquet, which will feature a speech by Colgate University History professor Andrew Rotter, a dramatic presentation of one of the books by the Canadian playwright and Friends of Freddy founder Dave Carley, as well as a road trip to Colgate University. There will also be sing-alongs, round-table discussions and a book auction.
The Friends of Freddy group singlehandedly brought back the book to print after it went out of print in the 1970s. Conventions are held in upstate New York in the autumn of even-numbered years.
The Freddy the Pig series will now be in ebook starting in December with Open Road Integrated Media.