Occupation Novelist Spouse Nicola Miner (m. 1999) Movies Pig Hunt | Name Robert Anderson Books Boonville Role Novelist | |
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Similar People James Isaac, Bob Miner, Patrick Kack‑Brice, Mark Duplass, Jay Duplass | ||
Robert Mailer Anderson Responds to Trump
Robert Mailer Anderson (born 1968) is an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright and philanthropist. He is the author of the novel Boonville, which takes place in the Northern California town of Boonville, and the 2016 play "The Death of Teddy Ballgame." Anderson is a three-time San Francisco Library Laureate and in 2016 he was presented the San Francisco Arts Medallion for his outstanding leadership in the arts.
Contents
- Robert Mailer Anderson Responds to Trump
- Family background
- Writing career
- Personal life
- Activism
- Selected works
- References
Family background
Anderson was born in San Francisco. He is an eighth-generation native of California. Anderson and his two siblings were raised by divorced blue-collar parents. As a young man he spent five years living with his father at Grapevine Group Home for juvenile delinquents and disturbed youth, where his father was the director. He also spent time at his father’s prior workplace, Fern Hill School, run by his uncle Bruce Anderson, where residents included future serial killer David Mason and Darrell Waters, who murdered one of the Fern Hill counselors. His uncle, Bruce Anderson, is the publisher of the Anderson Valley Advertiser for which Robert was both a contributor and fiction editor in the 1990s. During his time as fiction editor, Anderson attracted talents like Daniel Handler, Sandow Birk, Floyd Salas and Michelle Tea.
Writing career
Anderson's short story "36-28-34-7" was published by Christopher Street in 1995. Boonville was published in 2001 by Bay Area independent publisher Creative Arts Book Publishing, and was then picked up for paperback reprint by HarperCollins.
In 2007 he co-wrote, produced, and appeared in Pig Hunt, a horror film set in Northern California.
Anderson's play "The Death of Teddy Ballgame" was published by San Francisco publishing press Molotov Editions in 2016.
Personal life
Anderson lives in San Francisco. Married to the heiress Nicola Miner (daughter of Oracle Corporation cofounder Bob Miner), he is a former board member of the San Francisco Opera, and the SFJAZZ. During his ten years on the SF Jazz board, Anderson spearheaded the $65 million campaign to build the SF Jazz Center, the first freestanding building for jazz performance and education in America. Anderson named the campaign "The World is Listening" and the phrase was later used to promote the 55th Annual GRAMMY Awards. On February 16, 2012, he and his wife hosted Barack Obama's fundraising visit to San Francisco, at his home in Pacific Heights. Singer Al Green, bassist Les Claypool, harmonica player Charlie Musselwhite and blues player Booker T. Jones performed for the fundraiser.
Activism
In June 2004, Anderson created an anti-Iraq War poster campaign, which juxtaposed an Abu Graib prisoner, the American Flag, and the slogan "Got Democracy?". The poster became part of the collection at Center for the Study of Political Graphics in Los Angeles.
Selected works
Books
Film
Albums