About Elliot

Elliot was born on the front seat of a 1964 Chrysler New Yorker  as it sped through the streets of Brooklyn, New York.  The exact location of his birth remains a mystery to this day. 

At  the age of seven, Elliot boarded a bus to Camp Massad in Tannersville Pennsylvania.  He was kicking, screaming and crying because he was  homesick.  It was on  that bus  where  he composed  the song  – “I Want  To Go Home”.  The song  had a total of  five words.  Unfortunately he didn’t copyright the song,  because that song would go on to become an international sensation –   sung by thousands  of homesick campers over the next forty years.   Elliot stopped crying about a week  after getting off the bus, when he  realized –  he actually loved summer camp.  He loved the sports, the swimming,  the singing, the salamanders,  the bug juice, trip days, overnights, canteen, and strangely, the smell of camp on rainy days. And mostly he loved the camp friends that he made over the years.  He happily boarded that same  bus for the next ten summers, until Camp Massad unfortunately closed its doors.

Elliot  has been  telling  summer camp stories to children  ever since – always to smiles and looks of wonderment, and usually to the question  – Did that really happen???  The stories  are fun,  a bit zany and…  the stories really happened!!! 

On a professional level, because Elliot never copyrighted the song “I Want To Go Home”, he was forced to work in the investment management business for the last 30 years.  Luckily, he loved that as well.  Elliot  founded several firms, has served on corporate boards, and has been involved in civic and  charitable organizations. 

While bicycling across the USA with his son, (somewhere around Marfa, Texas) Elliot realized that although  he enjoyed what he did professionally, his work did not add any collective joy to the world.  So what to do???  That’s when the idea hit him (better an idea than a truck).  He decided that writing  a fun  children’s picture book series could add  additional joy to the planet  and make people smile.  The Summer Camp Stories series was born.  

The goal of the series is to tell some  memorable stories,  teach important life lessons, and promote great values.  The stories also subtly introduce children to different aspects of summer camp life.

The Safety Pin is Elliot’s first published book, and the first book in his Summer Camp Stories series.

Elliot  lives with his wife and three children in Stamford, Connecticut.