Peggy Anderson (July 14, 1938 – January 17, 2016) was an American author and journalist, best known for her 1979 work ''Nurse'', which profiled the work of a nurse and sold millions of copies.Sam Roberts

''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', January 18, 2016.

Life

Anderson was born in

Oak Park, Illinois Oak Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, adjacent to Chicago. It is the 29th-most populous municipality in Illinois with a population of 54,583 as of the 2020 U.S. Census estimate. Oak Park was first settled in 1835 and later incorporated ...

, in 1938, to Catherine Anderson, a nurse, and her husband Wilbert Anderson. She graduated from Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, and then joined the

Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John F ...

. While with the Peace Corps, she taught English for two years in the early 1960s in

Togo Togo (), officially the Togolese Republic (french: République togolaise), is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its c ...

.Robert Moran
"Peggy Anderson, 77, Author of Bestseller ''Nurse''"
''

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...

'', Jan. 18, 2016. After her time in the Peace Corps, she worked as a reporter at ''

The Washington Monthly ''Washington Monthly'' is a bimonthly, nonprofit magazine of United States politics and government that is based in Washington, D.C. The magazine is known for its annual ranking of American colleges and universities, which serves as an alterna ...

'' and ''

'' (from 1969 to 1973). She wrote three well-known books: ''The Daughters'' (1972), about the Daughters of the American Revolution; ''Nurse'' (1979); and ''Children's Hospital'' (1985). ''Nurse'' was a major best-seller. The book was an account of the working life of a nurse, based on a pseudonymized series of interviews with a 27-year-old nurse named Philadelphia. The book was made into a movie and a TV seriesMary Vespa
"A Woman in White Finds a Gentle Biographer in Peggy Anderson, and Now 'Nurse' Heads for TV"
''

People Magazine ''People'' is an American weekly magazine that specializes in celebrity news and human-interest stories. It is published by Dotdash Meredith, a subsidiary of IAC. With a readership of 46.6 million adults in 2009, ''People'' had the lar ...

'', April 14, 1980, v. 13, n.15. starring

Michael Learned Michael Learned (born April 9, 1939) is a distinguished American actor, known for her role as Olivia Walton in the long-running CBS drama series ''The Waltons'' (1972–1981). She has won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in ...

, which won an Emmy award. It was suggested that she title the book "''Scar Wars''" (playing on the recent popularity of the film "Star Wars"), but Anderson stuck with the less sensationalistic title ''Nurse.'' The nurse, nicknamed "Mary Benjamin" in the book, at the time insisted on her anonymity, and "steadfastly protected her identity". She was later identified as Mary Fish and became a lifelong friend of Anderson's. For the book, Fish received $2,000 and 5% of profits from the book, for meeting with Anderson for 60 interviews, of two to six hours each. Anderson's 1972 book ''The Daughters'' "was a critical success and financial flop", providing her only a $2,500 advance. Anderson also had two incomplete manuscripts, one about the murder of her father in Chicago, and another about hospice nursing. The latter book was "almost done" when Anderson died of lung cancer.

Life

Notes

Further reading