Anne Snyder

Background

Anne Snyder was born on October 3, 1922, in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. She had a sister, Julie Norton and a brother, Sam Reisner.

Education

Snyder attended high school in Detroit and later put herself through two years of college. She also studied creative writing at Los Angeles Valley College.

Career

In 1949, Anne moved to Los Angeles, where she began her writing career. She wrote and directed plays for a Westchester theater group called Kentwood Players and for the City of Hope.

During the 1970s, she taught creative writing at Valley College and at Pierce College and Cal State Northridge. Snyder also worked in television. She researched and wrote questions for the “Hollywood Squares” game show and contributed concepts and scripts for “General Hospital” and “The Lucille Ball Show.” Her last novel, “The Best That Money Can Buy,” was published in 1983, co-written with Louis Pelletier, a frequent collaborator. Together, they also wrote “Counter Play,” which examined homosexuality, and “Two Point Zero,” which confronted the problem of classroom cheating.

Snyder stopped writing juvenile books to care for her husband, Louis, who died in 1996. She was writing a semi-autobiographical book in recent years.

Achievements

• Anne Snyder is known as a prize-winning author of young-adult fiction whose novels confronted alcoholism, homelessness, sexuality and other real-life dilemmas. Also, as a writer for such television shows as I Love Lucy and Hollywood Squares, she focused her other writings on serious issues faced by her young audiences.
  
  Snyder’s books for young readers include 50,000 Names for Jeff, Nobody's Family, Old Man and the Mule, Goodbye, Paper Doll, and You Want to Be What? In 1969 her 50,000 Names for Jeff was named one of the ten best children’s books by the Child Study Association of America.
  
  First Step, published in 1975, earned the top juvenile award from Friends of American Writers as well as special honors from the National Council of Christians and Jews. The story of a high school girl and her alcoholic mother, it was adapted for television as an ABC After School Special.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Two Point Zero

    (In order to get evidence for an exposé on cheating by col...)

    1982
  • 50,000 names for Jeff

    (Ten-year-old Jeff gets his first lesson in democratic pro...)

    1969
  • Nobody's Brother

    (The close friendship between sixteen-year-old Josh and hi...)

    1982
  • Nobody's Family

    (When they accidentally become stowaways on a private boat...)

    1975
  • My Name Is Davy - I'm an Alcoholic

    (A fifteen-year-old won't believe that he is an alcoholic ...)

    1977
  • The Old Man and the Mule

    (A contrary old man and his equally contrary mule find tha...)

    1978
  • First Step 1975
  • The Best That Money Can Buy 1983

Views

Like other novelists who specialized in young-adult reality fiction, Anne did not believe in sheltering children from perplexing social issues.

Personality

Anne was a stylish woman known for her colorful hats.

Connections

In 1949, Anne married Louis. She had two daughters, Nathalie Lauro and Maribeth Berman, five grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

Sister:

Julie Norton

Brother:

Sam Reisner

Daughter:

Nathalie Lauro

Daughter:

Maribeth Berman

husband:

Louis Snyder

colleague:

Louis Pelletier

March 7, 1906 – February 11, 2000

Louis Pelletier was an American author of radio dramas and screenplays for motion pictures and television.

References

• Contemporary Authors New Revision Series: A Bio-Bibliographical Guide to Current Writers in Fiction, General Non-Fiction, Poetry, Journalism, Drama, Motion Pictures, TV, & Other Fields, Vol. 193 In response to the escalating need for up-to-date information on writers, Contemporary Authors New Revision Series brings researchers the most recent data on the worlds most-popular authors.
  2010