Early life

David Wallechinsky was born David Wallace in Los Angeles to a Jewish family, the son of writer Sylvia Kahn and the author and screenwriter Irving Wallace. His younger sister was fellow author Amy Wallace, a "witch" of Carlos Castaneda who co-wrote many books with him and their father and authored Sorcerer's Apprentice: My Life with Carlos Castaneda in 2003.

One day, after he got off an airplane in Britain, the customs officer looked at his passport and remarked, "Ah Wallace, a good Scottish boy coming home." Disquieted, back in the States he discovered that the original family name was Wallechinsky and he adopted that moniker. He was educated at Palisades High School in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California, graduating in 1965. One of his classmates was future film critic and talk radio host Michael Medved, and they later wrote What Really Happened to the Class of '65, a series of interviews with their former classmates. Alone, Wallechinsky went back to his school year and wrote a similar book Midterm Report: The Class of '65: Chronicles of an American Generation about pupils from across America who left high school in that year.

Career

In 1973, Wallechinsky became fed up with almanacs that regurgitated bare facts. He had the idea for a reference book to be read for pleasure; a book that would tell the often untold true tales of history. He worked alone for 12 months before being joined by his father for a further year of research. The People's Almanac was published by Doubleday in 1975 and became a best-seller. One of the most popular chapters was a selection of lists and, joined by his father and sister, Wallechinsky wrote The Book of Lists, which became an international best-seller. Both books spawned not only follow-up editions but innumerable copy titles such as The Ethnic Almanac, The Jewish Almanac, The Book Of TV Lists, The Book Of Sex Lists, etc.

Wallechinsky was taken to the Rome Olympic Games in 1960 by his father and a seed was germinated that later resulted in the seminal The Complete Book of the Olympics, a reference work that contained full results and many anecdotes about the modern Games. The book became unwieldy so was later split into two volumes The Complete Book of the Summer Olympics and The Complete Book of the Winter Olympics series. Wallechinsky now shares the editorial duties with his nephew Jaime Loucky (b. Los Angeles 26 February 1981). The books led to work for Wallechinsky as an Olympic commentator for NBC.

In 1992 he was one of the founding members of the International Society of Olympic Historians (ISOH). He served as Treasurer of the ISOH from 1996 to 2004, Vice-President from 2004 to 2012 and is currently serving a four-year term as the organization's President.

Wallechinsky is the founder of AllGov.com, which provides up-to-date news about more than 340 departments and agencies of the American government, most of which operate under the radar of the media, even when they have annual budgets of billions of dollars. AllGov tells you what each agency says it does, what it really does (in The People's Almanac Wallechinsky compiled a list of each country and had the topics "Who Rules?" and "Who REALLY Rules?"), and who is making a profit from the agency. It also gives a history of the agency, illuminates controversies relating to the agency and shares critiques and suggested reforms from both the left and the right.

He has compiled the list of "The World’s 10 Worst Dictators" for Parade magazine for the last several years. In 2006, this subject became a book entitled: Tyrants: The World’s 20 Worst Living Dictators. These men are: Omar al-Bashir (Sudan), Kim Jong-il (North Korea), Than Shwe (Burma), Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe), Islam Karimov (Uzbekistan), Hu Jintao (China), King Abdullah (Saudi Arabia), Saparmurat Niyazov (Turkmenistan), Seyed Ali Khamanei (Iran), Teodoro Obiang Nguema (Equatorial Guinea), Muammar Gaddafi (Libya), King Mswati III (Swaziland), Pervez Musharraf (Pakistan), Aleksandr Lukashenko (Belarus), Fidel Castro (Cuba), Isaias Afwerki (Eritrea), Bashar al-Assad (Syria), Meles Zenawi (Ethiopia), Paul Biya (Cameroon), and Choummaly Sayasone (Laos). There is a 21st chapter on the "special case" of George W. Bush (USA), which is not mentioned on the book's US cover.

Personal life

Wallechinsky is a vegetarian and is married to Flora Chavez. They have two sons: Elijah Chavez Wallechinsky (b. Los Angeles, June 3, 1983) and Aaron Chavez Wallechinsky (b. West Park Hospital, Canoga Park, Los Angeles, January 5, 1986). Both brothers are avid photographers and designers. Wallechinsky splits his time between Santa Monica, California and the south of France.

Works

• Laughing Gas: Nitrous Oxide, with Michael Sheldin and Saunie Salyer Ronin Publishing (1993 reprint of earlier work)
• Chico's Organic Gardening and Natural Living (1972) With Frank "Chico" Bucaro
• The People's Almanac (Doubleday, 1975) (with Irving Wallace)
• What Really Happened to the Class of '65? (1976) (with Michael Medved)
• The Book of Lists (William Morrow, 1977) (with Irving Wallace and Amy Wallace)
• The People's Almanac #2 (William Morrow, 1978) (with Irving Wallace)
• The Book of Lists #2 (William Morrow, 1980) (with Irving Wallace, Amy Wallace and Sylvia Wallace)
• The Book of Predictions (1980) (with Amy Wallace and Irving Wallace)
• The People's Almanac #3 (William Morrow, 1981) (with Irving Wallace)
• The Intimate Sex Lives of Famous People (Delacorte, 1981) (with Irving Wallace, Amy Wallace and Sylvia Wallace)
• The Book of Lists #3 (William Morrow, 1983) (with Amy Wallace and Irving Wallace)
• Significa (Dutton, 1983) (with Irving Wallace and Amy Wallace)
• The Complete Book of the Olympics (Penguin, 1984)
• Midterm Report: The Class of '65: Chronicles Of An American Generation (1986); later published as Class Reunion '65, Tales of an American Generation
• The Book of Lists: The '90s Edition (Little, Brown, 1993) (with Amy Wallace)
• The People's Almanac Presents The 20th Century: History With The Boring Parts Left Out (Little, Brown, 1999)
• Tyrants: The World’s 20 Worst Living Dictators (ReganBooks, 2006)
• The Complete Book of the Summer Olympics (various editions) (with Jaime Loucky)
• The Complete Book of the Winter Olympics (various editions) (with Jaime Loucky)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]