RIPLEY, W.Va. — Legendary actor and director Henry Winkler cut his teeth in his role as Arthur Fonzarelli or “Fonzie” on the classic television series “Happy Days.”
These days, The Fonz, keeps himself busy as an author. Along with a co-author he pens a series of children’s books entitled “Adventure of Hank Zipzer — the World’s Greatest Under Achiever.” Winkler is able to express the difficulties he experienced growing up as a child with a learning disability through the books. There are 28 books in the series and the 29th is in production.
But the childrens’ series isn’t Winkler’s only writing project. He also produced the book entitled, “I Never Met an Idiot on the River.”
“It’s the only adult book I’ve ever written. It’s about fly fishing for trout,” said Winkler during a recent visit to Jackson County where he met with hundreds of school c
hildren who’ve been reading his Zipzer series. “I’ve never met an idiot on the river, now there are idiots on the river but never fly fisher people. Fly fisher people are unbelievably lovely human beings.”
The book chronicles Winkler’s hobby and passion for fly fishing which he apparently does as often as the opportunity presents itself. Winkler added the pictures in the book which don’t include him were all taken by him. He said the pictures were another challenge when he learned a fair amount about photography. He said it was yet another skill he never expected to master.
“Everything that I learned from fly fishing, that I have applied to life, I’ve included in that book,” Winkler said.