Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Forward 50 2011

Adam Mansbach

Poet and author Adam Mansbach, 35, first thought of the idea behind “Go the F**k to Sleep,” a children’s book for adults, when he was having a particularly difficult time trying to get his 2-year-old daughter to close her eyes. The book’s cheeky rhymes detail a parent’s struggle to put his child to sleep while dodging a stream of excuses from a crafty toddler.

With whimsical and sweet illustrations provided by Ricardo Cortés, the book has become a phenomenal success, surprising even the author. The publication date was moved up from October to June after PDF copies of the book went viral. The book debuted at No. 1 on The New York Times’ best-seller list and climbed to the top spot on Amazon, all before it was printed. And this summer, when actor Samuel L. Jackson recorded the audio version of the book, Mansbach’s words took on a life of their own.

Mansbach’s previous award-winning works include “The End of the Jews,” which won the 2008 California Book Award, and “Angry Black White Boy.” He is finishing a two-year engagement as the New Voices Visiting Writer at Rutgers University.

Mansbach says religion does not play a big role in his life, but he told the Forward in June that “being Jewish is a big part of my artistic sensibility and my humor. I think it gives me a certain take on the world on a literary level.”

With three books in the works and rumors of a feature film based on “Go the F**k to Sleep,” exhausted parents have something to look forward to — if they can get a babysitter.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.