Background
Joan Anderson was born on February 28, 1943, in Buffalo, New York, United States.
Joan Anderson
222 York St, New Haven, CT 06511, United States
Before beginning her writing career, Joan Anderson studied at the Yale University School of Drama.
541 Main St, New London, NH 03257, United States
Joan Anderson attended Colby Sawyer College.
222 York St, New Haven, CT 06511, United States
Before beginning her writing career, Joan Anderson studied at the Yale University School of Drama.
541 Main St, New London, NH 03257, United States
Joan Anderson attended Colby Sawyer College.
Joan Anderson
Joan Anderson
(In this moving sequel to her national bestseller A Year b...)
In this moving sequel to her national bestseller A Year by the Sea, Joan Anderson explores the challenges of rebuilding and renewing a marriage with her trademark candor, compassion, and insight. With A Year by the Sea, Joan Anderson struck a chord in many tens of thousands of readers. Her brave decision to take a year for herself away from her marriage, her frank assessment of herself at midlife, and her openness in sharing her fears as well as her triumphs won her admirers and inspired women across the country to reconsider their options. In this new book, Anderson does for marriage what she did for women at midlife.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000RH0EAM/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i1
2003
(In this book, Joan Anderson gives women practical advice ...)
In this book, Joan Anderson gives women practical advice and inspiration for building creative, independent, and fulfilling lives through discovering who they truly are and who they can be. Like Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, Joan Anderson’s bestselling A Year by the Sea revealed a far larger than expected constituency, in the form of thousands of women struggling to realize their full potential. After years of focusing on the needs of others as a wife and mother, Anderson devoted a year to rediscovering herself and reinvigorating her dreams. The questions she asked herself and the insights she gained became the core of the popular weekend workshops Anderson developed to help women figure out how - after being all things to all people - they can finally become what they need to be for themselves.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GCFCGO/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i4
2006
(From the author of the bestselling A Year By the Sea, com...)
From the author of the bestselling A Year By the Sea, comes the inspiring story about how her and Joan Erikson's friendship pushed them to remember the importance of transformation and sustained them through their unique challenges. Shortly after arriving on Cape Cod to spend a year by herself, Joan Anderson’s chance encounter with a wise and astonishing woman helped her usher in the self-discoveries that led to her ongoing renewal. First glimpsed as a slender figure on a fogged-in beach, Joan Erikson was not only a friend and confidante when she was most needed, but also a guide as Anderson stretched and grew into her unfinished self.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000XU8ECS/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i2
2007
(The basis for the major motion picture of the same name. ...)
The basis for the major motion picture of the same name. An entrancing memoir of how one woman's journey of self-discovery gave her the courage to persevere in re-creating her life. Life is a work in progress, as ever-changing as a sandy shoreline along the beach. During the years Joan Anderson was a loving wife and supportive mother, she had slowly and unconsciously replaced her own dreams with the needs of her family. With her sons grown, however, she realized that the family no longer centered on the home she provided, and her relationship with her husband had become stagnant. Like many women in her situation, Joan realized that she had neglected to nurture herself and, worse, to envision fulfilling goals for her future. As her husband received a wonderful job opportunity out-of-state, it seemed that the best part of her own life was finished. Shocking both of them, she refused to follow him to his new job and decided to retreat to a family cottage on Cape Cod. At first casting about for direction, Joan soon began to take pleasure in her surroundings and call on resources she didn't realize she had. Over the course of a year, she gradually discovered that her life as an "unfinished woman" was full of possibilities. Out of that magical, difficult, transformative year came A Year by the Sea, a record of her experiences and a treasury of wisdom for readers.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004G8PIV8/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0
2011
(From the bestselling author of A Year by the Sea, this me...)
From the bestselling author of A Year by the Sea, this memoir is a coming-of-age story for every woman who has asked herself: "Now what?" The Second Journey chronicles Anderson's quest to restore equilibrium to her life after the responsibilities of being a mother, wife, grandmother, caretaker, and bestselling author distract her - almost dangerously - from taking care of herself. Suffused with Anderson's characteristic humor and warmth, this book is a permission slip for any woman who seeks to step out of line and create her own destiny. As Joan shares her stories of balancing love, marriage, family, parents, and spirituality, she inspires and instructs readers to find peace and a unique purpose within their own lives. She offers reassurance that the best is yet to come, and empowers other women to come of age in the middle of life.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007MB5VJ0/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i3
2012
Joan Anderson was born on February 28, 1943, in Buffalo, New York, United States.
Joan Anderson attended Colby Sawyer College and Yale University School of Drama.
Anderson began her writing career as a stringer reporter for the Gannett newspaper chain.
But widespread recognition, especially among women, Joan Anderson gained for her 1999 autobiographical book titled A Year by the Sea: Thoughts of An Unfinished Woman. In it Anderson describes a year in which she and her husband took a "vacation" from their thirty-year marriage, a decision initiated by the author after her youngest son went off to college and her husband announced that they were moving to another state for his new job. Upon hearing the news, Anderson blurted out that she was not going. Instead, she told her husband she was going to spend time at a seaside cottage on Cape Cod on a journey of self-discovery. "It was the first real gut reaction I ever let happen," Anderson told Mary Mullett-Flynn for an article in the Buffalo News.
In her article, Mullett-Flynn noted that "Anderson tackles some of women's most profound fears" in the book, including issues concerning midlife crises and the "empty nest" syndrome. Anderson tells her story in a month-by-month chronicle that reveals her fears, joys, successes, and failures. "For the first six weeks at the cottage I was terrified," Anderson told Mullett-Flynn. She went on to say, "I knew I had to stick with the decision I had made and somehow make it work." In addition to swimming with seals and running a marathon, Anderson filled her time by working in a fish market and clamming to make extra money as a supplement to her book royalties. By the end of her memoir, Anderson accepts her husband's plan to retire and move into the cottage with her. Writing in the Library Journal, Joyce Sparrow noted, "Anderson's story reminds readers not to overlook their personal needs when providing for family members." A Publishers Weekly reviewer called the book an "accessible memoir" that also contains "vivid and meticulous observations about the natural world."
Although initially rejected by thirty-seven publishers, A Year by the Sea struck a chord with many women seeking to redefine themselves after years of juggling a career, marriage, and raising a family. The experience also led Anderson to begin her "Weekend by the Sea" retreats for women, which include workshops focusing on the needs and goals of the specific attendees. "I started these weekend retreats because so many women have written to me about their need for renewal," Anderson says on a Web page dedicated to the author and her book An Unfinished Marriage. She also told Mullett-Flynn, "Women become renewed at our workshop in such a powerful way." She also noted that the workshops can help wives "come away from this experience bringing a positive force back into their marriage."
Anderson continued in the autobiographical mode with her sequel to A Year by the Sea, which was published in 2002. In An Unfinished Marriage, Anderson describes the process of how she and her husband rebuilt their marriage the year after they reunited and moved together into the cottage. She also describes their marriage during their early years. Writing in People, Francine Prose remarked that the couples' "ultimate success will hearten fans of Anderson's unpretentious style." Another reviewer writing in Publishers Weekly noted, "Fans of her earlier work will find the same thoughtful reflection and candor in this close-up of marriage at midlife."
While Anderson's memoirs brought her national attention and appearances on television shows such as Oprah, she has been writing for two decades. In her 1982 book, Breaking the TV Habit, Anderson presents research concerning how television can be destructive to children and sets forth a four-week program for learning how to watch television less frequently and more intelligently. She has also co-authored a similar book with Robin Wilkins called Getting Unplugged: Take Control of Your Family's Television, Video Game, and Computer Habits. Published in 1998, the book also includes a four-week program for getting the family, especially children, "unplugged" so they can enjoy family life once again. Like her previous volume, the book includes a section on research revealing the negative effects of video games, computers, and television on children.
Anderson's most prolific writing has been for a juvenile audience. Her first children's book, The First Thanksgiving Feast, was published in 1984 and retells the story of the first Pilgrims who lived at Plymouth, Massachusetts. The book is heavily illustrated with photographs by George Ancona, and much of the narrative is contained within fictionalized dialogues based on real first-person accounts made by the pilgrims. Writing in Horn Book, reviewer Karen Jameyson noted that, although information about the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving "abound," the "unusual, well-illustrated book stands out as a lively, even entertaining volume." The book's success led Anderson and Ancona to collaborate on numerous historical books combining Anderson's text or fictional narratives with Ancona's photographs. As noted by Carolyn Phelan in a review of Christmas on the Prairie for Booklist, Ancona's photographs provide a "feeling of realism to the narrative." Anderson and Ancona achieve this realism by staging many of the photographs at museums dedicated to the topic, like Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts and the Conner Prairie Pioneer Settlement in Indiana, both living history museums.
Anderson has also written non-historical fiction such as Harry's Helicopter, a tale about young Harry and his cardboard helicopter that really flies. John Peters, writing in School Library Journal, noted, "Readers may be teased into belief by Ancona's inventive trick photographs of the flight." He also called the book a "happy, cleverly illustrated wish-fulfillment story." Another collaborative effort between Anderson and Ancona is Earth Keepers, which describes three environmental projects, including a cleanup of the Hudson River in New York. Betsy Hearne, writing in the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, noted, "As a photodocumentary, this achieves its self-avowedly useful goal through a clean, working complement of text and illustration." Anderson has continued to team up with other photographers for her juvenile books, the two most recent focusing on sports. In Batboy: An Inside Look at Spring Training, Anderson and photographer Matthew Cavanaugh go behind the scenes to provide a look at spring training in baseball through the eyes of a batboy. In Rookie: Tamika Whitmore's First Year in the WNBA Anderson teams up with photographer Michelle V. Agins to provide a close-up look at a young woman's first year in the Women's Professional Basketball Association. Kathleen Odean, writing in Book, called Rookie an "inspiring treat for young WNBA fans."
(From the bestselling author of A Year by the Sea, this me...)
2012(From the author of the bestselling A Year By the Sea, com...)
2007(In this moving sequel to her national bestseller A Year b...)
2003(In this book, Joan Anderson gives women practical advice ...)
2006(The basis for the major motion picture of the same name. ...)
2011Joan Anderson is married to Robin Wilkins, and has two sons.
