The books in Peter Brown’s “Wild Robot” trilogy were the first to wallop my son with the mix of tragedy and joy that define great art and also real life.
A historian as well, he challenged, with a muckraker’s spirit, the political and corporate establishment of a country he adopted after fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe.
His long run with that venerable character was the highlight of a career that also encompassed Spider-Man, Aquaman and best-selling “Star Trek” novels.
His struggles with writer’s block led him to create a process that favored an expressive, personal approach over rigid academic conventions that often stifled students.
He was a neuropsychiatrist who was studying consciousness when a patient explained what had happened to him. He came to believe the phenomenon was real.