Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Rick Kogan began his career at sixteen, working for the Chicago Sun-Times during the tumultuous Democratic Convention of 1968. He is currently senior staff writer and columnist for the Chicago Tribune Sunday Magazine and host of the popular WGN-AM Sunday Papers radio program, which airs in thirty-eight states and Canada. He was named Chicago's Best Reporter in 1999, Chicago's Greatest Living Journalist in 2002, and was inducted into the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame in March 2003. A longtime friend to Ann Landers and her editor for the last five years of her life, Kogan lives with his wife in Chicago.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

For two generations of Americans, reading Ann Landers's daily column was as important as eating breakfast. For nearly fifty years an entire nation turned to this quick-witted, worldly-wise counselor for advice on everything from dinner etiquette to sex. But who was the woman behind the byline?

Iowa-born Eppie Lederer was first hired by the Chicago Sun-Times to take over the daily advice column in 1955 -- and over the next half-century she helped shape the nation's social and sexual landscape. Award-winning journalist Rick Kogan was Ann Landers's last editor and close friend, and he paints a fascinating, full-bodied account of the triumphs, the wisdom, the courage, and the trials of one of the twentieth century's most enduring icons -- including her painful lifelong feud with her identical twin sister, "Dear Abby"; her stubborn refusal to shy away from even the most controversial topics; and the tragic breakup of her own thirty-six-year marriage. Filled with remarkable stories shared by people from all walks of life who were profoundly affected by the good sense and guidance of Ann Landers, America's Mom is a moving tribute to a singular woman who has earned an eternal place in our culture ... and our hearts.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

America's Mom

Perennial

Chapter One

LOT 1248W

Ann Landers 1936
Senior High School Yearbook

The yearbook is the Maroon & White. Central HighSchool, Sioux City, Iowa. The year 1936 was not agood year in America, except perhaps for the hundredsof people staring from the pages of the book, faces mostlysmiling, filled with the youthful hope and confidence and ignorance that would allow them to see the future beyond the Great Depression.

It always surprises people to learn that the person whowould become Ann Landers was born and raised in Iowa. ButIowa was where Esther Pauline Friedman was born, if you're looking for all-American symbolism, on July 4, 1918. She cameinto the world seventeen minutes before her twin sister, whowould be named Pauline Esther Friedman and who wouldbecome Abigail Van Buren, or Dear Abby, to most of those whohave ever picked up a newspaper.

The Friedman family was big on nicknames, and almostimmediately father Abraham, mother Rebecca, and the twoolder sisters, Dorothy and Helen, started referring to the babiesas "Eppie" and "Popo," and that's how everyone would knowthem, into high school and far beyond. "My friends all call meEppie," Eppie always said. "People who call me Ann are thepeople I don't know."

She also said, "I think I owe a lot to my Iowa heritage. I thinkthat middle-American values have helped me tremendously -- the principles, the morality. It was a place where neighbors caredabout neighbors. And I mean really cared."

Eppie's yearbook is fascinating, a snapshot of an innocenttime only older people can now remember, even down to theads at the back of the book for the Sioux City Stock Yards,Richey's Barber Shop ("Neatness is one of the most importantthings in your life"), Blue Bunny Ice Cream ("Ask For It ByName"), Blue Barrel Soap ("Kind As a Kiss on Your Hands"),and Morey's ("Home of the Two-Pants Suit").

There are no ads for the theaters owned by Eppie andPopo's father. Abraham Friedman had come to America withhis wife in 1908. They came, fleeing czarist pogroms and fearfulthat he might be conscripted into the army, from Vladivostok,Russia. They arrived in Sioux City speaking no English, havingno money or any marketable skills. But Abe Friedman started buying chickens from farmers and peddling them to grocersfrom a horse-drawn cart. The horse was blind, so he was able tobuy it for less than he would have paid for one that could see,and eventually he and his blind horse had made enough moneyto buy a small grocery store.

Home was a two-story frame house, and it was a warm andhappy place. "I learned a great deal from my father," Eppiewould recall for a Chicago Tribune reporter in 1990. "He wouldbecome one of the most respected citizens in the city. But therewas more than respect. He was dearly loved by everybody. Hehad a special spark and a delicious sense of humor. He nevermet a stranger and he never met anyone he couldn't get alongwith. He was truly extraordinary, a real 'people person.' It wasfrom him that I learned how to be a communicator. One of thethings my father told me I have always remembered: 'You neverlearn anything while you're talking.'"

She considered her mother "a saint ... the one who establishedthe standards in our family. She provided the disciplineand set the moral tone. She was a beautiful woman, loving butfirm. There was never any question about where she stood.[Popo] and I could con Daddy and wrap him around our littlefingers, but Mama -- never. From her I learned a sense ofresponsibility and that no matter what, you kept your word."

The family was Jewish, and Eppie would later say she was"brought up to be proud of her Jewishness." Indeed, she wouldoften refer to herself as "the Jewish Joan of Arc" and the "originalsquare Jewish lady from Sioux City." Though millions ofAmericans knew her only by the Waspy Ann Landers name, shesaid that Jewish culture had something to do with her success as an advice columnist, "being sympathetic to other people andtheir problems, because the Jews through the centuries havebeen persecuted and have had great troubles and problems."

In 1930, when the twins were twelve, Abe Friedman soldhis grocery store and bought a movie theater, made that successful,and then bought two more. "He owned every theater intown except the Orpheum," Eppie would often say, pride still inher voice decades later, adding that, "My father was one of thefirst theater owners to install popcorn machines and thosemachines took in more money than the box office."

The twins were inseparable. "I don't recall ever being alonewith one or the other, because they were constantly together.And you just thought of them as one person," said first cousinRuth Davidson in a 2000 episode of TV's Biography aboutEppie.

They were also an aggressively playful pair. Exploiting theirtwinship in elementary school, they loved to switch places,which delighted classmates and infuriated teachers. Eppie wasusually the instigator, easily convincing Popo to join in mischief.As Davidson recalled, "My parents, when they knew thetwins were coming over, would say, 'Uh-oh. Lock everythingup,' because you never knew what they were going to do.[Once] their grandfather was taking a nap on the sofa and theycut off his beard." Still, Eppie could remember getting spankedonly once, after she and Popo used scissors to cut the fringe offsome lamp shades and curtains in their living room.

If the twins were natural pranksters, they were also bornperformers. Their parents often allowed hoboes to move intothe house and sleep in the basement ...

Excerpted from America's Momby Kogan, Rick Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.