Anna Quindlen Essay

When you think great American author, many people think of Anna Quindlen. She won many awards. They include but are not limited to a Pulitzer and two Clarion Awards. She is an older sister and a daughter, as well as a wife and mother. Anna Quindlen has published many, many literary works, including novels, children’s books, nonfiction works, columns, and new table pictorials. This woman is not only an author, but she is a role model and hero to some, having accomplished her dreams with great dignity and grace. Anna Quindlen was not always Anna Quindlen the famous author. First, she was Anna Marie Quindlen, the oldest of five children in Philadelphia, and later on, New Jersey. She has one sister and three brothers, all of which are younger than she is, her sister being the youngest of the five. When Anna was nineteen, her mother, an italian woman, died of ovarian cancer at age fourty. She uses that experience in much of her writing, such as â€Å"A Short Guide to a Happy Life.† This left her with only her father, and Irish man, as most of the characters in her books such as â€Å"Object Lessons’ are. Since she was a teenager, Anna Quindlen has been a feminist, and although her reasoning has changed quite a bit, she still remains one. Anna currently is married to a man named Gerald Krovatin and has three children. They all live in New York City. This incredible woman has written and published four best-selling novels. They are â€Å"Object Lessons,† â€Å"One True Thing,† â€Å"Black and Blue,† and â€Å"Blessings.† â€Å"Black and Blue’ was made into a movie as well as â€Å"One True Thing†. Anna also has three collection of her colums published. They consist of â€Å"Living Out Loud,† â€Å"Thinking Out Loud,† and â€Å"Loud and Clear.† She also wrote about her own personal experiences in â€Å"A Short Guide to a Happy Life, â€Å"Being Perfect,† and â€Å"Imagined London.† â€Å"Being Perfect† is a national bestseller as well as â€Å"A Short Guide to a Happy Life.† She was a columnist for the New York Times from 1981 to 1994, and 1990 was a big year for her. In that year she was given the title of the third woman in New York Times history to write a column for the Op-Ed page. In 1995 Anna became a full-time book writer and left her column and journalism. In 1992, Ms. Quindlen won a very honorable prize. In the category of Commentary, Anna Quindlen won a Pulitzer Prize. However, she did not stop there . She went on to win a Mothers At Home Media Award in 2001, and two Clarion Awards. The first, in 2001 for Best Regular Opinion Column in a magazine, and the second in 2002 for Best Opinion Column from the Association for Women in Communications. Annna has received honorary doctorates from Moravian College, Smith College, Denison University, Stevens Institute of Technology, and Mount Holyoke College. She was also give the University Medal of Excellence from Columbia. Ms. Quindlen was also a Victoria Fellow in Contemporary Issues at Rutgers, a Poynter Fellow in Journalism at Yale, and a Fellow of the Academy of Arts & Sciences. These things, among others, are what set her apart from others, and she has something to show for her achievements. And so Anna Quindlen accomplished more emotionally than any other woman on Earth. She was the third woman to write a certain column for the New York Times, and a best-selling author at the same time. As a role model for women everywhere, Anna Quindlen went from being little Anna Marie Quindlen to the great woman she is now. Her words have allowed the people of the twenty-first century to make great life choices and love people for who they are. Anna is thanked and revered for as long as she is remembered, which will definetly be for years and years to come.