Wikipedia

Elizabeth Drew

Elizabeth Drew (born November 16, 1935) is an American political journalist and author.

Elizabeth Drew
Drew in 2008
Born
Elizabeth Brenner

(1935-11-16) November 16, 1935 (age 89)
Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.
Alma materWellesley College
Occupation(s)Political journalist and author
Spouses
J. Patterson Drew
​
​
(m. 1964; died 1970)​
David Webster
​
​
(m. 1981; died 2003)​

Early life

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Elizabeth Brenner was born on November 16, 1935, in Cincinnati, Ohio.[1] She is the daughter of William J. Brenner, a furniture manufacturer,[2] and Estelle Brenner (née Jacobs).[3]

Drew attended Wellesley College, where she was a Phi Beta Kappa and graduated in 1957 with a BA in political science. Her first job in journalism was with Congressional Quarterly from 1959.[4]

Career

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External videos
  Interview with Drew on Campaign Journal, March 19, 1985, C-SPAN
  Booknotes interview with Drew on On the Edge, December 11, 1994, C-SPAN
  Presentation by Drew on Showdown, April 18, 1996, C-SPAN
  Presentation by Drew on Whatever It Takes, May 14, 1997, C-SPAN
  Interview with Drew on On the Edge, October 1, 1998, C-SPAN
  Washington Journal interview with Drew on The Corruption of American Politics, July 12, 1999, C-SPAN
  Washington Journal interview with Drew on Citizen McCain, May 7, 2002, C-SPAN
  Interview with Drew on Citizen McCain, November 14, 2002, C-SPAN
  Washington Journal interview with Drew on Richard M. Nixon, May 29, 2007, C-SPAN
  Interview with Drew on Richard M. Nixon, June 21, 2007, C-SPAN
  Presentation by Drew on Washington Journal: Reporting Watergate and Richard Nixon's Downfall, May 17, 2014, C-SPAN

She was Washington correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly (1967–1973) and The New Yorker (1973–1992). She made regular appearances on "Agronsky and Company" and hosted her own interview program, Thirty Minutes With... for PBS between 1971 and 1973, for which she won an Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award.[5] Drew was a panelist for Meet the Press for many years and made frequent appearances on the PBSNews Hour when it was presented by Jim Lehrer and still occasionally appears on The NewsHour and other radio and television programs.[6]

Drew was a panelist for the first debate in the 1976 U.S. Presidential election, and moderated the debate between the Democratic candidates for the nomination in the 1984 race.

Drew has published 14 books,[7][8] including Washington Journal: The Events of 1973-74 (1975), an account of the Watergate scandal; Portrait of an Election: The 1980 Presidential Campaign (1981); On the Edge: The Clinton Presidency (1994);[6] Citizen McCain (2002); and George W. Bush's Washington (2004). Her most recent book is Richard M. Nixon (2007). Washington Journal was re-issued in 2014, with a new afterword.[9][10]

In Black Hawk Down, Mark Bowden wrote of "Elizabeth Drew's On the Edge, an account of Clinton's first years in the White House. Drew's is the best account I've read of the Somalia episode from the White House's perspective."[11]

She was chosen to give the Knight Lecture at Stanford University in 1997.[12]

She is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books,[13] as well as to its website. She has also written for Rolling Stone.[14]

Drew is a former director of the Council on Foreign Relations (1972–1977).[15]

Personal life

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Drew was married to J. Patterson Drew from 1964 until his death in 1970 and was married to David Webster from 1981[16] until his death in 2003.[17] She currently resides in Washington D.C.

Criticism

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In 1986, the editors of Snooze: The Best of Our Magazine parodied her as "Elizabeth Drone," author of a "Giant Postcard From Washington."[18]

In 1989, Spy labeled her as the "author of too-frequent Washington columns."[19]

In 2014, President Richard Nixon's former aide Frank Gannon disputed Drew’s “blithe assertions that Nixon was a Dilantin-addicted alcoholic,” arguing that they were “as untrue as they are ugly.”[20]

Books

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  • Washington Journal: The Events of 1973–74 (1975)
    • Reissued as Washington Journal: Reporting Watergate and Richard Nixon's Downfall (2014)
  • American Journal: The Events of 1976 (1977)
  • Senator (1979)
  • Portrait of an Election: The 1980 Presidential Campaign (1981)
  • Politics and Money: The New Road to Corruption (1983)
  • Campaign Journal: Political Events of 1983–84 (1985)
  • Election Journal: Political Events of 1987–88 (1989)
  • On the Edge: The Clinton Presidency (1994)
  • Showdown: The Struggle Between the Gingrich Congress and the Clinton White House (1996)
  • Whatever It Takes: The Real Struggle for Political Power in America (1997)
  • The Corruption of American Politics: What Went Wrong and Why (1999)
  • Citizen McCain (2002)
  • Fear and Loathing in George W. Bush's Washington (2004)
  • Richard M. Nixon (The American Presidents series) (2007)

References

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  1. ^ "Elizabeth Brenner Drew." Almanac of Famous People. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2011. Retrieved via Biography In Context database, 16 November 2018.
  2. ^ Current Biography Yearbook 1979. New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 1980. Ed. Charles Moritz. p. 108.
  3. ^ "Drew, Elizabeth 1935-". Contemporary Authors. Retrieved March 17, 2021 – via Encyclopedia.com.
  4. ^ Henneberger, Melinda (May 14, 2014). "Elizabeth Drew's Washington, from covering Nixon to making new friends on Twitter". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on May 15, 2014. Retrieved March 17, 2021. When Elizabeth Brenner, graduate of Wellesley College and night secretarial school, hit town in 1959, her first journalism job was with Congressional Quarterly...
  5. ^ "PUBLIC TV LISTS MAJOR FALL FARE (Published 1971)". The New York Times. 1971-04-01. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-01-01.
  6. ^ a b Drew, Elizabeth (1995-11-08). On the Edge: The Clinton Presidency. Simon and Schuster. p. 473. ISBN 9780684813097.
  7. ^ Henneberger, Melinda (15 May 2014). "Elizabeth Drew, a grande dame of Washington, inspires a new generation of journalists". Washington Post. Retrieved via Biography in Context database, 2 October 2016. Discussing Drew's initial "Washington Journal" pieces in The New Yorker, refers to "14 subsequent books".
  8. ^ "Elizabeth Drew." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2005. Retrieved via Biography in Context database, 2 October 2016. Entry enumerates 13 books published through 2004.
  9. ^ Henneberger, Melinda (15 May 2014). "Elizabeth Drew, a grande dame of Washington, inspires a new generation of journalists". Washington Post. Retrieved via Biography in Context database, 2 October 2016.
  10. ^ Baker, Peter (3 August 2014). "40 Years Later, Still Trying to Define Presidential Power: Richard Nixon's Tenure and Downfall Are Reassessed". New York Times. Retrieved 2 October 2016.
  11. ^ Mark Bowden (2000), Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War, 2002 reprint, New York: Signet, "Sources", p. 447, ISBN 0-451-20514-6 .
  12. ^ "Elizabeth Drew: 9th Annual John S Knight Lecturer". Stanford University. Archived from the original on March 3, 2012.
  13. ^ "Elizabeth Drew". New York Review of Books. Retrieved 25 April 2011.
  14. ^ Drew, Elizabeth (24 October 2013). "GOP vs. the Poor".
  15. ^ "Historical Roster of Directors and Officers". Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved 25 April 2011.
  16. ^ "David Webster Weds Elizabeth Drew". New York Times. 27 September 1981. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
  17. ^ "David Webster, 72, High-Ranking BBC Official". New York Times. 8 August 2003. Retrieved 3 October 2016.
  18. ^ "Nonfiction Book Review: Snooze: The Best of Our Magazine by Alfred Gingold, Editor, John Buskin, Editor. Workman Publishing. $10.95 (272 p.)". ISBN 978-0-89480-118-1. Publishers Weekly. publishersweekly.com. Retrieved 2016-04-14.
  19. ^ Spy. Sussex Publishers, LLC. 1989-09-01.
  20. ^ Gannon, Frank. "Book Review: 'Washington Journal' by Elizabeth Drew & 'The Nixon Defense' by John W. Dean". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2016-04-14.
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