Anna Quindlen

Anna Marie Quindlen, born July 8, 1952, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is an American author, journalist, and opinion columnist. She is the daughter of Prudence Pantano Quindlen and Robert Quindlen; her father was Irish American and her mother was Italian American. Quindlen graduated from South Brunswick High School in South Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1970, then from Barnard College in 1974. She married New Jersey attorney Gerald Krovatin, whom she met while in college. Their sons, Quindlen Krovatin and Christopher Krovatin, are published authors, and their daughter Maria is an actress, comedian, and writer.

Quindlen began her journalism career in 1974 as a reporter for the New York Post. From 1977 to 1994, she held several posts at The New York Times, becoming especially known for her column Public and Private. In 1992, that column won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. Her work placed her among the American newspaper voices of the late twentieth century, writing opinion for a broad readership and drawing both admiration and criticism.

Alongside journalism, Quindlen built a wide-ranging career as a writer of fiction and nonfiction. Her nonfiction books include Living Out Loud, Thinking Out Loud, How Reading Changed My Life, A Short Guide to a Happy Life, Loud and Clear, Being Perfect, Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, Nanaville: Adventures in Grandparenting, and Write for Your Life. Her novels include Object Lessons, One True Thing, Black and Blue, Blessings, Rise and Shine, Every Last One, Still Life with Bread Crumbs, Miller’s Valley, Alternate Side, After Annie, and More Than Enough. She also wrote children’s books and pictorial books, including works illustrated by Nancy Carpenter and James Stevenson and books with photographs by Nick Kelsh.

One of the clearest links between Quindlen’s life and her fiction is One True Thing, published in 1994. The semi-autobiographical novel centers on the relationship between a young woman and her mother, who is dying from cancer. Quindlen’s own mother, Prudence Quindlen, died in 1972 while in her 40s from ovarian cancer. Quindlen was a college student at the time and came home to take care of her. In 1998, the novel was made into a film starring Meryl Streep and Renée Zellweger as Kate and Ellen Gulden, fictionalized versions of Prudence and Anna Quindlen. Streep received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for the role.

Quindlen’s public voice was not without dispute. Critic Lee Siegel, writing in The New Republic, used her as an example in an argument about writers he called “monsters of empathy,” and coined the phrase “The Quindlen Effect” in response to her commentary. In 1999, Villanova University invited her to give its annual commencement address, but she withdrew after anti-abortion students planned a protest over her positions on reproductive rights. The next year, she spoke at Villanova’s graduation. Over the years she received many honors, including the 2001 Mothers At Home Media Award, Clarion Awards in 2001 and 2002, honorary degrees from numerous institutions, and induction into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2016. Her words continue to matter because they come from the meeting place of reporting, opinion, family experience, and fiction, with a steady attention to private life as part of public conversation.