Erma Bombeck was an American humorist, columnist, and author. She wrote monthly columns for Good Housekeeping, as well as periodically for Reader’s Digest, Family Circle, Red Book, McCall’s, and Teen.http://www.ermamuseum.org/life/default.asp She wrote a nationally syndicated column that appeared in 900 newspapers across the U.S., and authored 15 books.http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,926677-2,00.html Several of her books, including The Grass Is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank and If Life is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits?, were best-sellers.http://www.biography.com/articles/Erma-Bombeck-259338 One of her books was co-authored with Bil Keane, the creator of the Family Circus cartoons.http://www.ermamuseum.org/life/default.asp The book The Grass Is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank also became a movie starring Carol Burnett and Charles Grodin.http://www.biography.com/articles/Erma-Bombeck-259338 For a short time she wrote the scripts for the ABC T.V. series Maggie.http://www.ermamuseum.org/life/default.asp

Erma Bombeck was born Erma Louise Fiste on February 21, 1927, and grew up in Dayton, Ohio.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0093571/bio She married William (Bill) Bombeck in 1949 and adopted her first child, Betsy, in 1951.http://www.ermamuseum.org/life/default.asp She had also had two other children: Andrew (1955) and Matthew (1958).http://www.ermamuseum.org/life/default.asp She died April 22, 1996, from complications of a kidney transplant.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0093571/bio

Bombeck began writing publicly in junior high school when she wrote for the school paper, The Owl.http://www.ermamuseum.org/life/default.asp She also wrote for her college newspaper when she attended the University of Dayton.http://www.ermamuseum.org/life/default.asp She graduated in 1949.http://www.ermamuseum.org/life/default.asp After college, she pursued a writing career for a time before quitting to raise her family. She began writing again in 1964 for the Kettering-Oakwood Times.http://www.ermamuseum.org/life/default.asp After a time her column was picked up by Glenn Thompson of the Dayton Journal-Herald and after only three weeks there she signed a contract with Newsday.http://www.ermamuseum.org/life/default.asp In 1988, she moved to Universal Press, which distributed her column until her death.http://www.ermamuseum.org/life/default.asp

Erma’s first book, At Wits End, was published in 1967.http://www.ermamuseum.org/life/default.asp She handled the details for the first book as well as a few others, but she published The Grass is Greener Over the Septic Tank with Aaron Priest as her agent.http://www.ermamuseum.org/life/default.asp The book, I Want to Grow Hair, I Want to Grow Up, I Want to Go to Boise, was written for children with cancer and their families after she made a visit to Camp Surprise, a camp for children with cancer.http://www.ermamuseum.org/life/default.asp All of the proceeds from American sales went to the American Cancer society, and sales outside of the U.S. were donated to Eleanor Roosevelt International Cancer Research Fellowships.http://www.ermamuseum.org/life/default.asp The book When You Look Like Your Passport Photo, It's Time to Go Home was a New York Times best seller and the sixth-best-selling nonfiction book of 1991.http://www.harpercollins.com/authors/974/Erma_Bombeck/index.aspx?authorID=974 For 11 years, she appeared as a regular on Good Morning America.http://www.harpercollins.com/authors/974/Erma_Bombeck/index.aspx?authorID=974

"I have no patience. It's really strange. I have patience with my writing - I can rewrite for weeks on end. But when it comes to assembling a box for Christmas, I can't do that. I just want to rip it apart."—Bombeck in an interview with Teri Rizvi that appeared in the University of Dayton Quarterly, 1991.http://www.humorwriters.org/rizvi.html

"If you're a professional writer, you write. You don't sit there and wait for sweet inspiration to tap you on the shoulder and say now's the time."—Bombeck in an interview with Teri Rizvi that appeared in the University of Dayton Quarterly, 1991.http://www.humorwriters.org/rizvi.html

• At Wit's Endhttp://www.ermamuseum.org/life/default.asp

• Just Wait Till You Have Children of Your Ownhttp://www.ermamuseum.org/life/default.asp

• I Lost Everything in the Post-Natal Depressionhttp://www.ermamuseum.org/life/default.asp

• The Grass Is Always Greener Over the Septic Tankhttp://www.ermamuseum.org/life/default.asp

• A Marriage Made in Heaven...Or Too Tired for an Affair

• When You Look Like Your Passport Photo, It's Time to Go Homehttp://www.harpercollins.com/authors/974/Erma_Bombeck/index.aspx?authorID=974

• Family - The Ties that Bind...And Gag!http://www.amazon.com/Favorite-books-by-Erma-Bombeck/lm/2CMKDJ78GN6KD