New Biography of V. C. Andrews Is Out

[Critteranne]

Talk about a blast from the past! V. C. Andrews died in 1986, so it's astounding that it took this long for a biography to come out. From everything I've read, she was a fascinating person. But she was also private, so that could be why it took this long.

On the other hand, I'm a little worried because it's by Andrew Neiderman, the ghostwriter hired by her estate. On the third hand, Andrew Neiderman is probably the only one who would have access to her letters, etc.

So what do you think? Do you think it's OK that her ghostwriter is the guy writing her biography? Do you think it's OK that there is a biography being published about a lady who was apparently very private? (Being very private doesn't mean people won't write biographies about you after all -- look at Edward Gorey.)

Like me, are you being thrown back into your teenage years after learning about this biography?


This newspaper article about the new book includes an excerpt.

[issybird]

Hah! I just in the last ten minutes read a review of the Andrews biography and was going to post a link here.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...box=1643673507

Disclosure: I didn’t read and love the books as a girl and when I read the first later on out of curiosity, I thought it was both dreadful and disgusting. That said, the biography sounds both sympathetic and reasonable; I can’t imagine that a fan wouldn’t gobble it up. But it also has to be noted that the biographer made a very good thing out of writing as Andrews; that’s a ridiculous number of follow-on books.

[Critteranne]

Originally Posted by issybird

Hah! I just in the last ten minutes read a review of the Andrews biography and was going to post a link here.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...box=1643673507

That article looks good, too. If The Guardian lets me read it.

Her mother sounds like a bad parent from a question in Reddit's AITA forum...

Originally Posted by issybird

Disclosure: I didn’t read and love the books as a girl and when I read the first later on out of curiosity, I thought it was both dreadful and disgusting. That said, the biography sounds both sympathetic and reasonable; I can’t imagine that a fan wouldn’t gobble it up. But it also has to be noted that the biographer made a very good thing out of writing as Andrews; that’s a ridiculous number of follow-on books.

From what I have read, VCA originally sent her publisher a much longer original manuscript. Her editor's response was "Wow, this is going to be huge!" but also "I'm going to cut this up." So I don't know how much of the book is the original and how much of it was mucked up by the editor.

I loved the books when I was younger -- and then kind of gave up after My Sweet Audrina. (Perhaps the world's most naive heroine?) When I reread Flowers in the Attic a couple of years ago, I was amazed by how bad some of the sentences were and yet how wonderful some of the actual writing was. So maybe it really does show the heavy hand of an editor.

And yeah, he has had quite a lengthy career as her ghostwriter... I think he's more than 80 years old now?! Most of the new series have very little connection to the original books. As prolific as he was earlier on, if he'd continued the original books, at this point, he'd have to start setting them in space.

[zuma]

They should release it as an autobiography.

[Critteranne]

Originally Posted by zuma

They should release it as an autobiography.

Kind of like “Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography” — but posthumous!

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by zuma

They should release it as an autobiography.

I was thinking the first few chapters could be about Andrews and then it could shift to being a biography of Andrew Niederman.