Christopher Andersen | |
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| Born | Christopher Peter Andersen (1949-05-26)May 26, 1949 (age 76) Pensacola, Florida, U.S. |
| Occupation | Journalist, author |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Journalism,biography |
Christopher Peter Andersen (born May 26, 1949) is an American journalist and the author of 35 books, including many bestsellers.
For college, Anderson graduated from theUniversity of California at Berkeley, and thereafter, he joined the staff ofTime magazine as a contributing editor in 1969.[1] From 1974 to 1986 Andersen was senior editor of Time Incorporated'sPeople magazine.[2] He has also written for a wide range of publications, includingThe New York Times, theNew YorkDaily News,[3]Life, andVanity Fair.
While his early nonfiction books veered from psychology (The Name Game) totrue crime (The Serpent's Tooth) to art collecting (The Best of Everything, with formerSotheby's chairmanJohn L. Marion), he is best known for his controversialbiographies. Between 1991 and 2011, he published 14New York Timesbestselling biographies. Two of these—The Day Diana Died andThe Day John Died—went to No.1. Andersen's second book about the relationship of PresidentJohn F. Kennedy and First LadyJacqueline Kennedy,These Few Precious Days: The Final Year of Jack with Jackie, was published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination and also became a Top 10New York Times bestseller, followed byThe Good Son: JFK Jr. and the Mother He Loved in 2014. In 2016,Game of Crowns was published to markQueen Elizabeth II's 90th birthday, becoming Andersen's 18thTimes best seller.
Seven of Andersen's titles have also been selected for theReader's Digest Today's Best Nonfiction Books of the Year series. In November 2008, NBC'sBrian Williams presented Andersen with a Joan's Legacy Award for excellence in journalism regarding lung cancer, along withLadies Home Journal, which excerpted the portion of his bookSomewhere in Heaven: The Remarkable Love Story of Dana and Christopher Reeve describing Dana Reeve's battle with lung cancer.Madonna Unauthorized (1991) andThe Day John Died (2000) were made into television films.[4]
Andersen has made frequent appearances on TV programs such as theToday Show,Good Morning America,Entertainment Tonight,Larry King Live,The CBS Early Show,Dateline,Extra,The O'Reilly Factor,NBC Nightly News,ABC World News,48 Hours,Inside Edition,Anderson Cooper 360 andHardball.[5]
Married since 1972 to former international banker Valerie Hess, Andersen resides inConnecticut. They have two daughters — formerBloomberg NewsWhite House correspondent and bestselling author (The Residence,First Women)Katharine Andersen Brower (born 1980) and artist Kelly Andersen (born 1990). In April 2016, Andersen'sGame of Crowns and Brower'sFirst Women were published within days of each other. At one point, father and daughter occupied five positions on theTimes hardcover, ebook, and combined ebook and hardcover lists.
Assaying several Kennedy biographies, Larissa MacFarguhar wrote in theNew York Times that Andersen'sJack and Jackie was "the most worth reading" and "comes closest to making Jackie sparkle". Of the sequel,Jackie After Jack: Portrait of The Lady,USA Today said "readers will be spellbound" whileNewsweek called the book "poignant" and "intimate".The Day Diana Died was also a critical as well as commercial success, withTime describing the book as "swift and astounding reading",People calling it "riveting", theWashington Post citing its "breathless new details about the last hours of Diana's life" and theChicago Sun-Times deeming the book "a fabulous, addictive read". In his review ofGeorge and Laura: Portrait of an American Marriage,Newsweek's critic wrote that "Andersen's insights can be as sharp as his details", while in its story onThe Day John Died the Associated Press called Andersen "the master of the detail-packed tearjerker." Andersen wroteMick: The Wild Life and Mad Genius of Jagger to mark the 50th anniversary of theRolling Stones in July 2012. The book quickly became Andersen's 15thNew York Times bestseller. In a review inThe Guardian, Dorian Lynskey noted: "A book about a singer that pays no attention to his songs is simply an anthology of gossip, albeit juicy, unusually well-researched gossip.".[6] However, theDaily Beast calledMick "brilliant" andEntertainment Weekly described it as "jam-packed with juiciness".
In a lengthy 1999Salon review, Jake Tapper wrote ofBill and Hillary: The Marriage: "Andersen dishes like a catty high school girl holding forth in the lunchroom." But Tapper also stated that the book's "depiction of the Clintons' lopsided quid-pro-quo relationship meshes perfectly with the glimmers of insight the Clintons themselves have offered us", concluding thatBill and Hillary is "a guilty pleasure" and that in the end "the Clintons are getting the book they deserve."[7] Similarly, in its review of Andersen's bestselling Streisand biography,Barbra: The Way She Is, theNew York Times noted that Andersen "has a knack for ferreting memorable anecdotes of the 'no wire hangers' variety" whileUSA Today claimed the book "hits all the high notes" in Streisand's life story. Terry Hartle of theChristian Science Monitor wrote that Andersen'sThese Few Precious Days: The Last Year of Jack with Jackie was "fascinating and insightful" andKirkus Reviews determined thatThe Good Sonwas "sensitive and astute, intimate" with "the power to mesmerize".Vanity Fair called Andersen's 2016 bookGame of Crowns "catnip for royal watchers".
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