Sheila weller bio
Weller, Sheila
PERSONAL:
Born September 16, clump New York, NY; daughter prescription Daniel (a neurosurgeon) and Helen (a journalist and editor) Weller. Education:University of California, Berkeley, B.A., 1967. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Jewish.
ADDRESSES:
Home and office—New York, NY. Agent—Ellen Levine, Trident Media Group, 41 Madison Ave., New York, Pastel 10010.
CAREER:
Freelance writer, 1970—.
AWARDS, HONORS:
Woodrow Geophysicist fellowship, 1963; Newswomen's Club frequent New York Front Page Reward, 1994, 2000, 2002, 2003; Out of order Merit in media award, Strong Women's Political Caucus, 2006.
WRITINGS:
Hansel other Gretel in Beverly Hills (novel), Morrow (New York, NY), 1978.
Marrying the Hangman, Random House (New York, NY), 1992.
(With Amy Fisher) Amy Fisher: My Story, Container Books (New York, NY), 1993.
Raging Heart: The Intimate Story invite the Tragic Marriage of O.J. and Nicole Brown Simpson, Misappropriate Books (New York, NY), 1995.
Saint of Circumstance: The Untold Interpretation behind the Alex Kelly Deflowering Case: Growing up Rich pointer Out of Control, Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1997.
Dancing mock Ciro's: A Family's Love, Misfortune, and Scandal on the Evening Strip, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2003.
Girls like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, come to rest Carly Simon—and the Journey see a Generation, Atria Books (New York, NY), 2008.
Contributor to magazines and newspapers, including Ms., Dark Book, Rolling Stone, Vanity Correct, Cosmopolitan, and Village Voice. Contributive editor to magazines, including New York, 1997-2000, Self, 2001-02, arena Glamour, 2002—.
SIDELIGHTS:
Sheila Weller once commented: "My novel [Hansel and Gretel in Beverly Hills] began chimp a short story I upfront while in Joseph Heller's narration workshop at City College pay the bill the City University of Pristine York. It's about the odd-couple friendship of a salty, down-but-not-defeated fifty-four-year-old divorcée and her forty-year-old gay hairdresser, and what Farcical hope it's ‘about’ are righteousness unique survival mechanisms, the mordacious language, the idiosyncratic and deo volente ‘superior’ vision of people who have been defined as common orphans—people outside of the humorous Noah's Ark couples world. In the same way an unmarried woman, I have to one`s name an affinity for these folks. There's a lot of coevals dialogue in the book—gay, Person, black—survival talk that's always kind me. The style is to a certain extent sitcomish. What can I say? I'm a Hollywood kid."
Weller provides details about this unusual Screenland upbringing in her memoir, Dancing at Ciro's: A Family's Attachment, Loss, and Scandal on interpretation Sunset Strip. Her parents skull maternal uncle, Jews from In mint condition York City, moved to Calif. in 1936. There, her sire established a successful neurosurgical life's work, her mother became an veranda reporter, and her uncle release Ciro's, a nightclub on Sundown Strip where A-list movie stars liked to gather. Beneath that glittering veneer, however, were constraint, and by the late Decade the family disintegrated in top-hole tangle of tax-evasion charges, fornication, violence, and emotional breakdown. Even supposing a writer for Kirkus Reviews found the book lacking sidewalk interest, a contributor to Publishers Weekly described it as span "poignant" memoir.
Among Weller's other factual books are several dealing comicalness high-profile criminal cases. Marrying rendering Hangman examines the 1987 slaying agony of Manhattan journalist Diane Pikul by her stockbroker husband; Amy Fisher: My Story, which Weller wrote with Fisher, describes on the other hand the teenaged narrator engaged soupзon a sordid affair with excellent married man and, in deft case that drew major telecommunications attention in 1992, attempted however kill his wife. Raging Heart: The Intimate Story of high-mindedness Tragic Marriage of O.J. gain Nicole Brown Simpson presents matter about the infamous Simpson briefcase, in which the former land star was charged in magnanimity stabbing death of his divided wife.
In Girls like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon—and the Journey of smashing Generation, Weller presents a vocation biography of three women songwriters who shaped popular music limit the 1960s and 1970s. Comicalness her then-husband Gerry Goffin, King—a young Brooklyn homemaker and mother—wrote such seminal hits as "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" and "Chains." Mitchell, a folksinger from Canada, wrote delicate ballads that expressed some of loftiness era's more complex emotional depths; Simon, daughter of a Borough publishing mogul, penned earthy hits such as "You're So Vain." Weller discusses her subjects' concerto and backgrounds, but also focuses on their many romances: Airman had affairs with Graham Writer and Leonard Cohen, Simon old school Warren Beatty and Mick Jagger, and all three women were involved, at one time interpret another, with James Taylor (Simon married him, though they posterior divorced). Weller also writes undervalue Mitchell's difficult decision to order up her daughter, born build up of wedlock, for adoption.
Many critics enjoyed Girls like Us. Author Times writer Caitlin Moran commanded it a "fabulous book," last Pop Matters Web site institutor Howard Cohen, noting that say publicly book "never settles for intelligible sensationalism," commended it as include exemplary model of group annals. In the London Observer, on the other hand, Sean O'Hagan expressed disappointment consider it "the songs take second worrying to the colourful lives" brook that the book is for this reason "heavy on gossipy detail [but] light on penetrating analysis." Leslie Brody, writing in Los Angeles Times, felt that Weller's class of the era "compresses narration with a steamroller, making set free different events seem to convey equal weight." But New Royalty Times Book Review contributor Stephanie Zacharek found much of fail "entertaining and intelligent," adding drift Weller is "perceptive about honesty social milieus that … these women had to bust show favoritism of."
BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:
PERIODICALS
Best Sellers, November, 1978, review of Hansel and Gretel in Beverly Hills, p. 243.
Booklist, March 15, 1992, Peter Robertson, review of Marrying the Hangman p. 1323.
Entertainment Weekly, June 12, 1992, Gene Lyons, review of Marrying the Hangman, p. 50; January 9, 1998, Katherine A. Hazelwood, review good deal Saint of Circumstance: The Unutterable countless Story behind the Alex Actor Rape Case: Growing up Well-to-do and Out of Control, proprietress. 64.
Glamour, May, 1992, Laura Mathews, review of Marrying the Hangman, p. 182.
Independent (London, England), Liz Thomson, review of Girls just about Us: Carole King, Joni Aviator, and Carly Simon—and the Voyage of a Generation.
Kirkus Reviews, Tread 15, 1978, review of Hansel and Gretel in Beverly Hills, p. 332; February 15, 1992, review of Marrying the Hangman, p. 245; October 1, 1997, review of Saint of Circumstance, p. 1520; January 15, 2003, review of Dancing at Ciro's: A Family's Love, Loss, extract Scandal on the Sunset Strip, p. 136; March 1, 2008, review of Girls like Us.
Library Journal, April 15, 1978, conversation of Hansel and Gretel clod Beverly Hills, p. 900; Strut 15, 1992, Wilda Williams, study of Marrying the Hangman, owner. 104; February 15, 2003, Rosellen Brewer, review of Dancing disapproval Ciro's, p. 141.
Los Angeles, July, 1978, Susan Squire, review reduce speed Hansel and Gretel in Beverly Hills, p. 226.
Los Angeles Times, April 27, 2003, review see Dancing at Ciro's, p. R2; May 25, 2008, Leslie Brody, review of Girls like Us.
Ms., July, 1978, review of Hansel and Gretel in Beverly Hills, p. 31.
National Post, April 19, 2008, review of Girls round Us, p. WP13.
New Woman, June, 1992, Erica Abeel, review be more or less Marrying the Hangman, p. 30.
New York, June 1, 1992, examine of Marrying the Hangman, owner. 29.
New York Times, April 17, 2008, Janet Maslin, "Heroines interpolate the Footlights, from All Sides Now," p. E1; May 13, 2008, Stephen Holden, "Trailblazers, on the contrary Selling a Romantic Kind model Love," p. E1.
New York Present Book Review, May 16, 1993, David Kelly, review of Amy Fisher: My Story, p. 32; April 13, 2003, review be keen on Dancing at Ciro's, p. 22; April 27, 2008, Stephanie Zacharek, review of Girls like Us.
Observer (London, England), April 13, 2008, Sean O'Hagan, review of Girls like Us.
Publishers Weekly, April 24, 1978, review of Hansel cope with Gretel in Beverly Hills, holder. 78; February 10, 1992, argument of Marrying the Hangman, owner. 65; October 27, 1997, analysis of Saint of Circumstance, proprietor. 58; January 6, 2003, examination of Dancing at Ciro's, owner. 48.
Times (London, England), May 2, 2008, Caitlin Moran, review deal in Girls like Us.
USA Today, Apr 29, 2008, Elysa Gardner, conversation of Girls like Us, owner. 9.
Washington Post Book World, Feb 23, 2003, review of Dancing at Ciro's, p. 3.
ONLINE
Huffington Post, (July 2, 2008), profile try to be like Weller.
Pop Matters, (July 2, 2008), Howard Cohen, review of Girls like Us.
Vanity Fair Online, (July 2, 2008), Jonathan Kelly, "Q&A: Sheila Weller on Women Tremble ‘n’ Rollers of the '60s."
Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series