A. Scott Berg
3871559
225341324
2008-07-13T04:49:56Z
Tassedethe
7098284
Disambiguate [[Kevin McCormick]] to [[Kevin McCormick (movie producer)]] using [[:en:Wikipedia:Tools/Navigation_popups|popups]]
{{Otherpeople2|A. Berg}}
{{Infobox Writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox Writer/doc]] -->
| name = A. Scott Berg
| image =
| caption =
| birthname = Andrew Scott Berg
| birthdate = {{birth date and age|1949|12|4}}
| birthplace = [[Norwalk, Connecticut|Norwalk]], [[Connecticut]]
| occupation = Biographer, journalist
| genre =
| movement =
| period = 1978–present
| notableworks = ''[[Lindbergh (book)|Lindbergh]]'' (1998)
| influences =
| influenced =
| signature =
| website =
| awards = {{awd|[[Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography]]|1999}}
}}
'''Andrew Scott Berg''' (b. [[December 4]], [[1949]]) is a [[Pulitzer Prize]]-winning [[United States|American]] [[Biography|biographer]]. After graduating from [[Princeton University]] in 1971, Berg expanded his senior thesis, about editor [[Maxwell Perkins]], into a full-length biography. ''[[Maxwell Perkins: Editor of Genius]]'' (1978) won a [[National Book Award]], and his second book, ''Goldwyn: A Biography'', was published in 1989. Berg's third book, a highly-anticipated biography of aviator [[Charles Lindbergh]], was published in 1998. ''Lindbergh'' became a [[New York Times Best Seller list|''New York Times'' Best Seller]],<ref>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE4DA1131F937A15752C0A96F958260 "BEST SELLERS: January 24, 1999"], [[The New York Times]], 1999-01-24. Retrieved on [[2007]]-[[11-26]].</ref> and won the [[Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography]]. In 2003, Berg published ''[[Kate Remembered]]'', a biography-cum-memoir about his friendship with actress [[Katharine Hepburn]] that received mixed reviews. He is currently researching a biography of [[Woodrow Wilson]].
Berg also wrote the story for ''[[Making Love]]'' (1982), a controversial film that was the first major studio drama to address the subjects of [[homosexuality|homosexual]] love, [[Closet(ed)|closeted]] marriages, and [[coming out]]. He has contributed articles to magazines such as ''[[Architectural Digest]]'' and ''[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]].''
==Life==
===Early life and work===
Berg was born in [[Norwalk, Connecticut|Norwalk]], [[Connecticut]], the son of Dick Berg, a film and television producer, and Barbara Berg, and was raised [[Jew]]ish.<ref name= "booknotes">[[Brian Lamb|Lamb, Brian]]. [http://www.booknotes.org/Transcript/?ProgramID=1494 Lindbergh: by A. Scott Berg] (interview transcript), [[Booknotes]], 1998-12-20. Retrieved on [[2007]]-[[11-26]].</ref> When Scott was eight, his family relocated to [[Los Angeles, California|Los Angeles]], [[California]].<ref name= "booknotes"/> While a sophomore at [[Palisades Charter High School]], Scott researched the author [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]] (a favorite of Barbara's, who named her son in part after Fitzgerald) for a report and "developed a mania" for his writing.<ref name= "lindprin">Merritt, J. I. [http://www.princeton.edu/~paw/archive_old/PAW98-99/05-1118/1118feat.html "Biographer A. Scott Berg '71 confronts the remarkable -- and still controversial -- flier, 'a great lens for observing the American century'"], Princeton Alumni Weekly, 1998-11-18. Retrieved on [[2007]]-[[10-30]].</ref> Berg read all of Fitzgerald's works and later recalled: "It was the first time I saw the fusion of an artist and his life, a tragic and romantic life."<ref name= "prince">Hafkin, Jessica. [http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2001/04/24/page3/ "Stories of 20th century heroes: Biographer A. Scott Berg '71"], [[The Daily Princetonian]], 2001-04-14. Retrieved on [[2007]]-[[10-30]].</ref> Scott applied to [[Princeton University]], primarily because it was Fitzgerald's ''[[alma mater]]'',<ref>[http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/bibliography/GreatGatsb_0 "The Great Gatsby: Recommended by A. Scott Berg"], [[Academy of Achievement]] Recommended Books. Retrieved on [[2007]]-[[11-26]].</ref> and was accepted in 1967.
At Princeton, Berg performed in the [[Princeton Triangle Club]] theater troupe and considered dropping out to become an actor, though he was convinced by English professor [[Carlos Baker]], a well-regarded biographer of [[Ernest Hemingway]], to "graduate, so at least you'll be an actor with a college degree".<ref name= "lindprin"/> Berg studied under Baker,<ref>Zernike, Kate. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D03E3DD1F30F932A1575AC0A9649C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 "Havana To Unlock Hemingway Papers"], [[The New York Times]], 2002-09-21. Retrieved on [[2007]]-[[10-30]].</ref> who offered him "constant encouragement and counsel" on his senior thesis, which was a study of editor [[Maxwell Perkins|Maxwell Perkins's]] career between 1919 and 1929.<ref>Berg (1978.) ''Max Perkins: Editor of Genius'', p. 455.</ref> After graduating from Princeton in 1971, Berg decided to expand the thesis into a full-length biography, thinking it would take around nine months.<ref>Silver, Allison. [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10A17FA355D0C7B8CDDA80994D9484D81 "Writing the Good Life"] (fee required), [[The New York Times]], 1981-11-08. Retrieved on [[2007]]-[[11-01]].</ref> He also formulated a career plan at this time, and later recalled: "I did tell myself early on: I think it would be interesting, perhaps, to spend a career writing a half-dozen biographies of twentieth-century American cultural figures—each one, as I often use as my metaphor, a different wedge of the great apple pie."<ref>[[Jonathan Yardley|Yardley, Jonathan]]. [http://ket.org/cgi-bin/cheetah/watch_video.pl?nola=kkauf+000110 Interview with A. Scott Berg] (video), Kentucky Author Forum, 1998. Retrieved on [[2007]]-[[11-01]].</ref> The Perkins biography, ''[[Max Perkins: Editor of Genius]]'', took longer than Berg anticipated and was eventually published in 1978. It won the 1980 [[National Book Award]] for biography.
In 1982, Berg was approached by [[Samuel Goldwyn, Jr.]] to write a biography of his father, independent film producer [[Samuel Goldwyn]]. Berg initially turned the project down, telling Goldwyn that "he was interested in American culture, not Hollywood," but changed his mind after visiting Goldwyn's archives and discovering gin rummy I.O.U.'s, menus from Goldwyn's dinner parties, and "all the quotidian minutiae that are a biographer's dream".<ref>[[Aljean Harmetz|Harmetz, Aljean]]. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE0D71339F934A15750C0A96F948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print "A Child of the Movies Writes About a Mogul"], [[The New York Times]], 1989-03-27. Retrieved on [[2007]]-[[11-01]].</ref> He won a 1982 [[Guggenheim Fellowship]], which helped finance his work on the biography.<ref>[http://www.gf.org/82fellow.html 1982 Fellows Page], John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved on [[2007]]-[[11-08]].</ref> The same year, Berg wrote the story for ''[[Making Love]]'', a controversial film that was the first major studio drama to address the subjects of [[homosexuality|homosexual]] love, [[Closet(ed)|closeted]] marriages, and [[coming out]].<ref>Arnold, Thomas K. [http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2006-02-06-making-love_x.htm "Piggybacking on 'Brokeback'"], [[USA Today]], 2006-02-06. Retrieved on [[2007]]-[[11-01]].</ref><ref>[http://www.advocate.com/40/bp_makinghistory.asp "The Back Pages: Making History"], [[The Advocate]], 2007. Retrieved on [[2007]]-[[11-01]].</ref> He also narrated ''[[Directed by William Wyler]]'', a 1986 [[documentary film]] about filmmaker [[William Wyler]] for which Berg interviewed Wyler, [[Bette Davis]], [[Audrey Hepburn]], [[Laurence Olivier]], and [[Barbra Streisand]], among others.<ref>Canby, Vincent. [http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9A0DEFDF133DF933A1575AC0A960948260 "FILM FESTIVAL; Study of William Wyler Includes Documentary"], [[The New York Times]], 1986-09-20. Retrieved on [[2007]]-[[11-01]].</ref> In 1989, Berg published ''Goldwyn: A Biography'', his second biography.
<!-- FAIR USE of Lindbergh (book).JPG: see image description page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Lindbergh (book).JPG for rationale -->[[Image:Lindbergh (book).JPG|left|thumb|150px|Berg's [[Pulitzer Prize]]-winning biography of [[Charles Lindbergh]] was published in 1998.]]
===''Lindbergh''===
After completing ''Goldwyn'' in 1989, Berg began the search for his next subject, who he wanted to be "another great American cultural figure but—because I had written about Perkins and Goldwyn—not somebody from the worlds of publishing or film".<ref name= "newsub">Berg (2003.) ''Kate Remembered''. p. 179-182.</ref> After briefly considering [[Tennessee Williams]], Berg decided to research the aviator [[Charles Lindbergh]], attracted by what he described as "the dramatic possibilities of the story of the great hero who became a great victim and a great villain".<ref name= "newsub"/> Berg convinced Lindbergh's widow, [[Anne Morrow Lindbergh]], to grant him unprecedented access to the man's archives, which he was surprised to find totaled "1,300 boxes, or several million papers".<ref name= "wein">Weinraub, Bernard. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9503E4D9143DF933A25757C0A96E958260 "At the Movies: Lindbergh Flies, Author Learns"], [[The New York Times]], 1998-04-10. Retrieved on [[2007]]-[[10-30]].</ref>
The biography, ''[[Lindbergh (book)|Lindbergh]]'', was highly-anticipated; prior to its publication, the book's film rights were bought, sight unseen, by [[Steven Spielberg]], who planned to direct a movie of it.<ref name= "sky">Hindes, Andrew. [http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117469441.html "Spielberg eyes sky"], [[Variety (magazine)|Variety]], 1998-04-03. Retrieved on [[2007]]-[[10-30]].</ref> Published in 1998, ''Lindbergh'' sold about 250,000 copies in hardcover,<ref>Arnold, Martin. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9500E5D71338F93BA15753C1A96F958260 "MAKING BOOKS: They're Bigger. But Better?"], [[The New York Times]], 1999-10-28. Retrieved on [[2007]]-[[11-26]].</ref> and won the [[Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography]]. Berg was noted for his exhaustive research,<ref name= "sky"/> as well as his sympathetic, but by no means uncritical, approach to Lindbergh, whose alleged [[anti-Semitism]] he addressed in a straightforward, unblinking manner.
===Recent work===
From 1998 to 2000, Berg wrote ''[[Kate Remembered]]'', a biography-cum-memoir detailing his 20-year friendship with Hollywood actress [[Katharine Hepburn]].<ref name= "ohthreeint">Fitzgerald, Carol, and Roberta O'Hara. [http://www.bookreporter.com/authors/au-berg-scott.asp "Interview"], Bookreporter.com, 2003-08-08. Retrieved on [[2007]]-[[10-28]].</ref> The book was published in 2003, only 12 days after Hepburn's death. It spent 11 weeks on the [[New York Times Best Seller list|''New York Times'' Nonfiction Best Seller list]],<ref>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E02EFD6143DF936A35753C1A9659C8B63"BEST SELLERS: October 5, 2003"], [[The New York Times]], 2003-10-05. Retrieved on [[2007]]-[[10-30]].</ref> but received uneasy critical response. In ''[[The New York Times]]'', [[Robert Gottlieb]] called it an "odd and unsettling book [that leaves] a sense of exploitation", and gossip columnist [[Liz Smith (journalist)|Liz Smith]], a friend of Hepburn's, called Berg "vain and narcissistic", and declared the book "[s]elf-promoting fakery....Hepburn would have despised it and his betrayal of her friendship."<ref>[[Robert Gottlieb|Gottlieb, Robert]]. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0DEED91731F934A2575BC0A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all "Bringing Up Biographer"], [[The New York Times]], 2003-08-17. Retrieved on [[2007]]-[[10-30]].</ref><ref name= "obz">DiGiacomo, Frank. [http://www.observer.com/print/48100/full "Kate Dismembered"], [[The New York Observer]], 2003-09-29. Retrieved on [[2007]]-[[10-30]].</ref> Berg responded in a written statement, saying that he was "truly shocked at Liz Smith's professional behavior—or, more accurately, her lack thereof" in "her personal assault on my reputation, one that stops just short of character assassination".<ref name= "obz"/>
Berg served on Princeton University's Board of Trustees from 1999 to 2003. Since 2000, he has been researching a biography of [[Woodrow Wilson]], of whom Berg says, "I have an image of him in my mind that is unlike any picture I have seen anywhere else, based on material at Princeton and 35 years of researching and thinking about him".<ref name= "library">Greenstein Altmann, Jennifer. [http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pwb/08/0218/berg/ "Illuminating lives: Berg researches Wilson biography while teaching ‘Life Writing’"], Princeton Weekly Bulletin, 2008-02-18. Retrieved on [[2008]]-[[02-19]].</ref> In February 2008, Berg said he was close to completing research on Wilson, and was beginning to write;<ref name= "library"/> he hopes to complete the biography in 2009.<ref name= "ohthreeint"/>
===Personal life===
Berg lives with his partner [[Kevin McCormick (movie producer)|Kevin McCormick]], a film producer, in Los Angeles.<ref>[[David Ehrenstein|Ehrenstein, David]]. [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1589/is_2003_Sept_2/ai_110737689 "Kate selectively remembered: out writer A. Scott Berg reverts to 'don't ask, don't tell' in his Hepburn biography"] (reprint), [[The Advocate]], 2003-09-02. Retrieved on [[2007]]-[[10-28]].</ref><ref>Berg (2003.) ''Kate Remembered''. p. 318.</ref> His brother is Jeff Berg, [[CEO]] of [[International Creative Management]], a leading Hollywood talent and literary agency.
==Bibliography==
* ''[[Max Perkins: Editor of Genius]]'' (1978)
* ''Goldwyn: A Biography'' (1989)
* ''[[Lindbergh (book)|Lindbergh]]'' (1998)
* ''[[Kate Remembered]]'' (2003)
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
* [http://ket.org/cgi-bin/cheetah/watch_video.pl?nola=kkauf+000110 1998 Kentucky Author Forum interview] with Berg, conducted by [[Jonathan Yardley]] (60 minutes, streaming video)
* [http://www.charlierose.com/shows/1998/09/25/2/a-conversation-with-biographer-a-scott-berg 1998 ''Charlie Rose'' interview] with Berg about ''Lindbergh'' (18 minutes, streaming video)
* [http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/jan-june99/pulitzer_4-23.html 1999 ''NewsHour'' interview] with Berg about ''Lindbergh'' (transcript)
* {{imdb name|1044809}}
{{Persondata
|NAME = Berg, Andrew Scott
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
|SHORT DESCRIPTION = Biographer, journalist
|DATE OF BIRTH = [[4 December]] [[1949]]
|PLACE OF BIRTH = [[Norwalk, Connecticut]]
|DATE OF DEATH =
|PLACE OF DEATH =
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berg, A. Scott}}
[[Category:1949 births]]
[[Category:American biographers]]
[[Category:American journalists]]
[[Category:Gay writers]]
[[Category:Jewish American writers]]
[[Category:LGBT people from the United States]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:People from Los Angeles, California]]
[[Category:People from Norwalk, Connecticut]]
[[Category:Princeton University alumni]]
[[Category:Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners]]