Edward Klein

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Edward Klein is a bestselling nonfiction author who has written about the Kennedys and Hillary Clinton.

Klein is the former foreign editor of Newsweek and former editor in chief of The New York Times Magazine. He frequently contributes to Vanity Fair and Parade; he has a weekly column in Parade called "Personality Parade" under the pseudonym "Walter Scott". Many of his books have been on The New York Times Bestseller list.

Klein is the step-father-in-law of Ruth Shalit.

He was also the principal for the Business Communications School at The Euclid High School Complex.

Klein attended Colgate University, graduated from Columbia University School of General Studies, and received an MA degree from the Columbia University school of journalism. He is the father of two grown children, Karen (former manager of The Four Seasons restaurant in New York City), and Alec (a reporter for The Wall Street Journal). He has been divorced twice, and is currently married to Dolores Barrett, a public relations executive.^[1]

[edit] Criticism

Klein's books have been dismissed by academics and journalists as "not only psychobabble," but "psychoblarney." An example of the criticism:

The Boston Herald has quoted him calling the late Carolyn Bessette Kennedy "a disturbed, neurotic, unstable young woman"; according to the Buffalo News, Klein's book The Kennedy Curse described Bessette Kennedy "sprawled on the floor in front of a sofa, disheveled and hollow-eyed, snorting cocaine with a gaggle of gay fashionistas." The News book review called The Kennedy Curse "a contrived and stretched effort that seeks legitimacy by surrounding a few interesting scoops with historical and psychological analysis," adding of one Klein passage: "He takes a long and involved analysis of Ireland's Great Famine of the 1840s, links it to the emigration of JFK's great-grandfather to Boston, and applies enough psychobabble to explain everything from President Kennedy's womanizing to William Kennedy Smith's celebrated rape trial in 1991."^[2]

He came under fire for his biography of Hillary Clinton entitled, The Truth about Hillary: What She Knew, When She Knew It, and How Far She'll Go to Become President which was released on June 21, 2005. On the day of its release Sean Hannity interviewed him on the radio. Radio host Al Franken, along with Joe Conason interviewed him on Air America that month as well. During the interview, Franken and Conason exposed inaccuracies in Klein's book, including incorrect names and deliberate omissions from quotes with the intention to deceive the reader.^[3] Klein claimed that he was not told that Conason, who had authored The Hunting of the President in defense of the Clintons, would join the interview, but Franken asserted that Klein's publicist was informed that Conason would help conduct the interview.

[edit] Publications

Katie: The Real Story, Crown Publishers, 2007.
The Truth About Hillary: What She Knew, When She Knew It, and How Far She'll Go to Become President, Sentinel HC, 2005.
Farewell, Jackie: A Portrait of Her Final Days, Viking Books, 2004.
All Too Human: The Love Story of Jack and Jackie Kennedy, St. Martin's Press, 2003.
Just Jackie: Her Private Years, Ballatine Books, 1999.
The Kennedy Curse: Why Tragedy Has Haunted America's First Family for 150 Years, Pocket Books, 1996.
If Israel Lost the War (with Richard Z. Chesnoff and Robert Littell), Coward-McCann, 1969.