The Walworthians: Benjamin DeNicholas

The Walworthians

A collection of telephone interviews published in the Wayne County STAR Newspaper and Wayne County MAIL Newspaper, 1994-209

by Kate Chamberlin

Benjamin DeNicholas

December 13, 2001

Long-time readers might remember a book that was serialized in the Wayne County STAR entitled: Not a Drop to Drink. It was the creative work of a local author, Benjamin DeNicholas. Mr. DeNicholas was born in Marion (NY) in a home on south Main Street about 88-years ago. Both He and the home are still doing quite well!

Mr. DeNicholas recalled the stories of his being born at home, with probably Dr. Davis of Newark or Dr. Essler of Walworth on call.

As a young man, he was not happy with the University of Syracuse, so his father encouraged Mr. DeNicholas to attend the University of Madrid, Spain, where he studied Literature for four years. Writing science-fiction, short stories became his genre. “Not a Drop to Drink” was about a world-wide drought and the ramifications it entailed. “Deep Freeze”, which was published in 1990, was also a sci-fi desaster story.

Mr. DeNicholas says that an agent is a must for an author and has used Mrs. Schlesinger of New York City as his agent for many years. He recalled that when he submitted “Teen Terrorist U.S.A.”, she sent it back to him with the admonishment to scramble the details on how to make a bomb, because some fool might actually try to make one.

He wrote his stories in long-hand and his wife would type them. He explained that his agent and especially the publishers wouldn’t accept long-hand manuscripts.

Many years ago, when the DeNicholases were living in Jamesville and Rod Sterling had a cottage on Canandaigua Lake, Ben and his wife were invited to join them for dinner. As they entered, Mr. Sterling handed Ben a glass of Vodka.

“I don’t drink,” Ben said, “but I drank that drink. It was a very nice three-hour dinner and resulted in my writing several stories for his television program ‘The Twilight Zone’.

Ben has lived in a house near the center of Wolcott for the past ten-years, although he previously owned the old Pitts farm where he did a little logging from his own woods. He’d skid the logs next door to the Pettit sawmill for processing.

“Not much has changed,” he commented. “The hotel is still there. It’s a nice town. I like it here.”

I asked him if he’d be writing his auto-biography or at least jot down a few vignettes.

“I could,” he chuckled, “but more than 30-years of writing is enough.”

Well, it takes a good author to know how and when to end a story. The next time you see him, though, ask him about the stories he wrote for Alfred Hitchcock.

Thank you, Benjamin DeNicholas. Wayne County is proud of you and your accomplishments.