Dragons Live Forever … But Not So Little Boys.
A 1962 hit song by ‘Peter, Paul & Mary’ holds a universal truth
“Puff, the Magic Dragon” (or just “Puff”) is a song written by Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary from a poem by Leonard Lipton. It was made popular by Yarrow’s group in a 1962 recording released in January 1963.
Origin of the song:
In 1959, Lipton came across a poem written in 1936 by my famous namesake Frederic Ogden Nash titled: ‘The tale of The Custard Dragon’ (in case you’ve forgotten, I’m Fred Ogden (writer nom-de-plume: Fred-Almost-Famous).
Frederic’s poem led Lipton to type out the words of his own poem in which he renamed the dragon ‘Puff’, and, after leaving on the typewriter, it was ‘found’ by Peter Yarrow who worked on the words of the poem, making them into his song: ‘Puff The Magic Dragon’.
After the song’s release Yarrow searched for Lipton to give him credit for the song
* * * * * NEWSFLASH * * * * *
I began drafting my story about Puff The Magic Dragon on October 10, 2022, and now on October 16th, I am ready to submit it for publication.
However, yesterday I came across a news report that revealed something that I was totally unaware of. It ‘hit me’ as a powerful coincidence.
It didn’t make me change a…
