╫PAR@ ` OTEXT ` AFriedman, Esther Pauline and Pauline Esther
1918╨ and 1918╨
syndicated columnists
The Friedman sisters, Esther Pauline (Ann Landers) and Pauline Esther (Abigail Van Buren), identical twins, were born on July 4, 1918, in Sioux City, Iowa. They both attended the city╒s Central High School and its Morningside College and were married in a double ceremony on the same day, July 2, 1939╤Esther to Jules W. Lederer and Pauline to Morton Phillips. For the next 16 years their ways parted: Esther Lederer lived for the most part in Chicago, sister Pauline Phillips in Minneapolis, Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and San Francisco. Both were active at various times in local Democratic politics and in the Red Cross Grey Ladies. In 1956 their lives and careers resumed parallel courses. In the fall of the previous year Lederer had entered a contest to find a successor to Ruth Crowley, who wrote an advice-to-the-lovelorn column for the Chicago Sun-Times under the pen name ╥Ann Landers.╙ Lederer, although she was the only nonprofessional to enter the competition, she won it, and her first column appeared in October 1955. Its success was rapid. Her commonsensical and sometimes astringent replies to questions from readers appealed to thousands and then millions of readers in the United States and abroad.
Although Phillips insisted that her sister╒s decision to write a column had no effect on her own course, she did submit in the late fall of 1955 some sample columns to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle. He immediately dropped the paper╒s regular columnist and substituted Phillips, who chose the pen name ╥Abigail Van Buren.╙ Her column first saw the light in January 1956. Like her sister╒s, it was soon enormously successful, and by the later 1960s the two were far and away the leaders in the field. Not surprisingly, their styles were very similar, and they both based their advice on traditional mores. Each was quick to consult professionals in law, medicine, psychology, and other fields when necessary. Abigail Van Buren published Dear Abby, 1958, Dear Teen-Ager, 1959, Dear Abby on Marriage, 1962, The Best of Dear Abby, 1981, and Dear Abby on Planning Your Wedding, 1988. Ann Landers╒s books included Since You Ask Me, 1961, Ann Landers Talks to Teen-Agers About Sex, 1964, and Truth is Stranger, 1968, and The Ann Landers Encyclopedia, A to Z: Improve Your Life Emotionally, Medically, Sexually, Socially, Spiritually, 1978.
Throughout their careers, both sisters also received many awards for public service. Lederer (aka Landers) served on the board of directors of the Dialogue for the Blind, the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and the American Cancer Society, while Phillips (Van Buren) served on the board of directors of the Lupus Foundation, the American Foundation for AIDS Research, and the American Federation for Aging Research.
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