Dear Abby is an American advice column founded in 1956 by Pauline Phillips under the pen name "Abigail Van Buren" and carried on today by her daughter, Jeanne Phillips, who now owns the legal rights to the pen name.
Dear Abby is an American advice column founded in 1956 by Pauline Phillips under the pen name "Abigail Van Buren" and carried on today by her daughter, Jeanne Phillips, who now owns the legal rights to the pen name.
According to Pauline Phillips, she came up with the pen name Abigail Van Buren by combining the name of Biblical figure Abigail in the Book of Samuel, with the last name of former US president Martin Van Buren.
The column was syndicated by the McNaught Syndicate from 1956 until 1966, when it moved to Universal Press Syndicate. Dear Abby's current syndication company claims the column is "well-known for sound, compassionate advice, delivered with the straightforward style of a good friend." [1]
By 1987, over 1,200 newspapers ran the column. [2]
Abby was born Pauline Esther Friedman, and her twin sister was born Esther Pauline Friedman. Abby was known as Popo, and her sister was Eppie [3] (a nickname from E.P.). [4]
Pauline Phillips started her Dear Abby column a few months after her twin sister, Eppie Lederer, took over the Ask Ann Landers column. This produced a rivalry and lengthy estrangement between the two sisters. [5]
On February 13, 1987, the Chicago Tribune announced that the Ann Landers column was moving to the Tribune, which had published the Dear Abby column for years. The Tribune ran both columns, Landers every day and Abby six days a week. [2]
In comparing the columns written by each of the sisters, the Jewish Women's Archive wrote that "Both columns were characterized by a straightforward tone, practical advice, and a firm but modern moral sensibility" and that "both women used humor, including sarcasm and one-liners, in their responses." [6]
Pauline Phillips wrote the column herself until 1987, at which time her daughter, Jeanne Phillips, began writing the column with her. In December 2000, the elder Phillips wrote a column identifying her daughter as her "co-creator" and added, "I will continue to work on this column until my Maker calls me home." [7] Twenty months later, the Phillips family revealed that Pauline was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. [8]
Although the change in authorship took place in 2000, the official statement—which included adding "Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips" to the bottom of each column—was not made until July 2002. [9] [10]
Pauline Phillips died on January 16, 2013, aged 94. [11]
Dear Abby (which has a readership estimated at 110 million in 2016 [12] ) and which The New York Times described as "a staple in American households for decades," [13] has been accused of being out of step with changing times. A 2016 column seemed to place the blame on a teen girl who had been sexually assaulted, [12] and a 2018 column, which said that traditional Western names are preferable for newborns with half-Indian heritage, gave rise to accusations of xenophobia. [13] [14]
Margo Howard is an American writer and former advice columnist. She is the only child of businessman/innovator Jules Lederer and Eppie Lederer, the niece of Pauline Phillips, and the cousin of Jeanne Phillips.
Pauline Esther Phillips, also known as Abigail Van Buren, was an American advice columnist and radio show host who began the well-known "Dear Abby" newspaper column in 1956. It became the most widely syndicated newspaper column in the world, syndicated in 1,400 newspapers with 110 million readers.
Wendie Malick is an American actress and former fashion model, known for her roles in various television comedies. She starred as Judith Tupper Stone in the HBO sitcom Dream On, and as Nina Van Horn in the NBC sitcom Just Shoot Me!, for which she was nominated for two Primetime Emmys and a Golden Globe Award.
An advice column is a column in a question and answer format. Typically, a reader writes to the media outlet with a problem in the form of a question, and the media outlet provides an answer or response.
Jules Lederer (1917–1999) was an American business executive and innovator.
Jeanne Phillips, also known as Abigail Van Buren, is an American advice columnist who has written for the advice column Dear Abby since 2000. She was born in Minneapolis to Pauline Esther Phillips, who founded Dear Abby in 1956.
Raeburn Van Buren was an American magazine and comic strip illustrator best known for his work on the syndicated Abbie an' Slats. He was familiarly known in the professional comics community as Ray Van Buren.
Abbie an' Slats is an American comic strip which ran from July 12, 1937, to January 30, 1971, initially written by Al Capp and drawn by Raeburn Van Buren. It was distributed by United Feature Syndicate.
Dear Prudence is an advice column appearing several times weekly in the online magazine Slate and syndicated to over 200 newspapers.
"Do not stand by my grave and weep" is the first line and popular title of the bereavement poem "Immortality", written by Clare Harner in 1934. Often now used is a slight variant: "Do not stand at my grave and weep".
Amy Dickinson is an American newspaper columnist who writes the syndicated advice column Ask Amy. Dickinson has appeared as a social commentator on ABC's Good Morning America and NBC's The Today Show.
Abigail is a feminine given name. The name comes from the Biblical Hebrew name Hebrew: אֲבִיגַיִל / אֲבִיגָיִל ʾĂvî-Ghayil, meaning "my father's joy". It is also a surname.
Antoinette Donnelly (1887–1964) was an American newspaper advice columnist and author of books about weight loss, beauty tips and advice. As Donnelly, she wrote the column Beauty Answers for the New York Daily News and other papers. She also wrote an advice column under the byline Doris Blake for 45 newspapers served by the Daily News and Chicago Tribune syndicate. In 1920, Donnelly wrote one of the first books about weight loss, the bestselling How to Reduce: New Waistlines for Old.
The McNaught Syndicate was an American newspaper syndicate founded in 1922. It was established by Virgil Venice McNitt and Charles V. McAdam. Its best known contents were the columns by Will Rogers and O. O. McIntyre, the Dear Abby letters section and comic strips, including Joe Palooka and Heathcliff. It folded in September 1989.
Van Buren is a Dutch surname meaning "of/from Buren". Buren is also the Dutch word for "neighbours".
Ann Landers was a pen name created by Chicago Sun-Times advice columnist Ruth Crowley in 1943 and taken over by Esther Pauline "Eppie" Lederer in 1955. For 56 years, the Ask Ann Landers syndicated advice column was a regular feature in many newspapers across North America. Owing to this popularity, "Ann Landers", though fictional, became something of a national institution and cultural icon.
Esther Pauline "Eppie" Lederer, better known by the pen name Ann Landers, was an American advice columnist and eventually a nationwide media celebrity. She began writing the "Ask Ann Landers" column in 1955 and continued for 47 years, by which time its readership was 90 million people. A 1978 World Almanac survey named her the most influential woman in the United States. She was the identical twin sister of Pauline Phillips, who wrote the similarly popular "Dear Abby" advice column as Abigail Van Buren.
Dean Benson Phillips is an American businessman, politician, and former candidate for the 2024 Democratic Party presidential nomination who has served as the U.S. representative from Minnesota's 3rd congressional district since 2019. Phillips's district encompasses the western suburbs of the Twin Cities, such as Bloomington, Minnetonka, Edina, Maple Grove, Plymouth, and Eden Prairie. A member of the Democratic Party, Phillips has both owned and started several companies in addition to serving as president and CEO of his family's liquor business, the Phillips Distilling Company. He is the former co-owner of Talenti gelato and co-owns Penny's Coffee. On November 24, 2023, Phillips announced that he would not run for reelection to his congressional seat.
Last month, Jeanne Phillips began taking sole credit for the column.