John A. Farrell

John Aloysius Farrell is an American author and historian. He has written biographies of U.S. President Richard Nixon, Senator Ted Kennedy, House Speaker Thomas "Tip" O'Neill, and defense attorney Clarence Darrow. He is a former White House correspondent and Washington editor for The Boston Globe and a former Washington bureau chief and columnist for The Denver Post.

John A. Farrell
John Farrell at the 2012 National Book Festival
John Farrell at the 2012 National Book Festival
OccupationWriter
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of Virginia
GenreBiography

On January 2, 2017, The New York Times reported that Farrell had unearthed notes written by Nixon aide H.R. Haldeman, which confirmed that Nixon personally authorized "throwing a monkey wrench" into Lyndon Johnson's attempts to negotiate peace in Vietnam on the eve of the 1968 election. In his famous interviews with newsman David Frost, and elsewhere, Nixon had always denied any participation in what history has come to call the Chennault Affair - after Anna Chennault, the Nixon campaign's go-between with South Vietnam.[1] Farrell's discovery earned praise from his peers.

On April 16, 2018 the Pulitzer Prize board announced that Richard Nixon: The Life was a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in Biography.

On April 13, 2018, the New-York Historical Society awarded Farrell the title of "American Historian Laureate," and presented him with the $50,000 Barbara and David Zalaznick Book Prize in American History for Richard Nixon: The Life.

Life
John A. Farrell at the 2011 Texas Book Festival.

Born in Huntington, New York, Farrell graduated from the University of Virginia in 1975 before working at newspapers in Montgomery County, Maryland, Annapolis and Baltimore. While at the Globe, he also worked as an investigative reporter on the vaunted "Spotlight" investigative unit. He has a PhD in history from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.

Excerpts of his work have been published in Jack Beatty's collection Pols: Great Writers on American Politicians from Bryan to Reagan, and in Leadership for the Public Service by Richard A. Loverd. Farrell was a contributor, as well, to The Boston Globe's 2004 biography of United States Senator from Massachusetts John Kerry.

Farrell is an on-camera commentator in the PBS American Experience documentaries "Jimmy Carter" and "The Perfect Crime," a study of the Leopold and Loeb thrill-killers case, and in the television series The Irish in America.

Journalistic awards and honors

Works
TitleYearPublisherISBNOCLCSubject matterAwardsInterviews and presentations
Tip O'Neill and the Democratic Century2001Little, BrownISBN 9780316185707OCLC 50513431Tip O'NeillD.B. Hardeman Prize, 2001[2]Presentation by Farrell on Tip O'Neill and the Democratic Century, March 19, 2001, C-SPAN
Booknotes interview with Farrell on Tip O'Neill and the Democratic Century, May 20, 2001, C-SPAN
Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned2011DoubledayISBN 9781921844256OCLC 904728121Clarence DarrowLos Angeles Times Book Prize, winner in Biography, 2011[3]Presentation by Farrell on Clarence Darrow, July 14, 2011, C-SPAN
Presentation by Farrell on Clarence Darrow, September 23, 2012, C-SPAN
Richard Nixon: The Life[4][5]2017DoubledayISBN 9780345804969OCLC 989962433Richard NixonFinalist, Pulitzer Prize for Biography, 2018[6]
Barbara and David Zalaznick Book Prize in American History, New-York Historical Society[7]
PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography, winner, 2018[8]		Q&A interview with Farrell on Richard Nixon, April 9, 2017, C-SPAN
Discussion with Farrell on Richard Nixon, March 22, 2017, C-SPAN
Presentation by Farrell on Richard Nixon, September 2, 2017, C-SPAN
Presentation by Farrell on Richard Nixon, May 8, 2019, C-SPAN
Ted Kennedy: A Life2022Penguin PressISBN 9780525558071OCLC 1320820101Ted KennedyPresentation by Farrell on Ted Kennedy, October 27, 2022, C-SPAN
Q&A interview with Farrell on Ted Kennedy, November 13, 2022, C-SPAN

Footnotes
  1. Peter Baker (2017-01-02). "Nixon Tried to Spoil Johnson's Vietnam Peace Talks in '68, Notes Show". The New York Times. p. A11. Retrieved 2017-01-04. Ken Hughes, a researcher at the Miller Center of the University of Virginia, who in 2014 published 'Chasing Shadows,' a book about the episode, said Mr. Farrell had found a smoking gun. 'This appears to be the missing piece of the puzzle in the Chennault affair,' Mr. Hughes said. The notes 'show that Nixon committed a crime to win the presidential election.'
  2. "The D.B. Hardeman Prize". LBJ Presidential Library. Retrieved March 2, 2023.
  3. "2011 Los Angeles Times Book Prize - Biography Winner and Nominees". Awards Archive. 2020-03-25. Retrieved March 2, 2023.
  4. "'Nixon: The Life' Humanizes — But Doesn't Rehabilitate". NPR.org. Retrieved 2018-02-26.
  5. Senior, Jennifer (2017-03-29). "'Richard Nixon,' Portrait of a Thin-Skinned, Media-Hating President". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-02-26.
  6. "2018 Pulitzer Prize Winners". www.pulitzer.org.
  7. Schuessler, Jennifer (March 6, 2018). "Nixon Biographer Wins American History Book Prize". New York Times. Retrieved March 2, 2023.
  8. "The 2018 PEN America Literary Awards Winners". PEN America. February 20, 2018. Retrieved March 2, 2023.
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