Cecily von Ziegesar

Cecily von Ziegesar
Born Cecily Brooke von Ziegesar
June 1970 (age 44)
New York City
Occupation Novelist
Nationality American/German
Period 2002–present
Genre Drama, comedy, short, romance
Notable works Gossip Girl series
The It Girl series
Spouse Richard Griggs[1]
Children 2

Cecily Brooke von Ziegesar (born June 27, 1970)[2] is an American author best known for the young adult Gossip Girl series of novels.

Biography

Early life and education

Cecily von Ziegesar was born in New York City in a family with origins in the German nobility. Her childhood dream was to grow up to be a ballerina; she began lessons at age 3 and auditioned for the School of American Ballet at age 8, but was rejected.[3] As a teenager, she commuted to Manhattan at 6 a.m. to attend The Nightingale-Bamford School.[4] After graduating from Nightingale, Ziegesar attended Colby College. Then she spent a year in Budapest working for a local radio station. She then returned to the United States to study creative writing at the University of Arizona, only to drop out shortly thereafter.[4]

Gossip Girl

Book series

In New York City, while working at book-packaging firm Alloy Entertainment, she became inspired to create the Gossip Girl series, which presents a view of high-end teenage lifestyles. The series climbed to the top of The New York Times Best-Sellers list in 2002. A spin-off book series, The It Girl, made the list in 2005.

The Constance Billard [sic] School for Girls is based on an exaggerated version of Ziegesar's own alma mater, Nightingale.

In October 2011, Ziegesar released a spin-off of the first novel: Psycho Killer.

Television series

Gossip Girl was adapted for television in 2007. The show premiered to mixed reviews and lost more than a million viewers from episode one to two, from 3.65 million[5] to 2.55 million.[6] The rest of the season's viewers went up and down, the highest being 3 million viewers for the season finale and the lowest being 1.80 million viewers for episode eleven.

Controversy and criticism surrounding the show surfaced due to the fact that it failed to show much of the books' plots, character personalities, and other major and minor facts, thus disappointing many fans of the novels. However, von Ziegesar told ABC News that her major plot lines were there and that "at least it takes place in New York City".[7]

In early 2011, The CW renewed the series for a fifth season. On May 16, 2011, Ziegesar herself made a cameo for the fourth season finale.[8]

Manga Series

In December 2009, Yen Press announced that it was working with Korean artist Baek Hye-Kyung to create a graphic novel adaptation of the series titled Gossip Girl: For Your Eyes Only. Rather than adapting the original novels, however, the graphic novels will feature original stories with the same characters. It will be serialized in the company's anthology magazine Yen Plus, with the first chapter appearing in the January 2010 issue.[9]

Personal life

She resides in Brooklyn with her husband Richard, the Deputy Director of the Public Art Fund,[10] their children, Agnes and Oscar,[11] and their two Cornish Rex cats.[2] Ziegesar also owns a westie named Frosty the Snowman.

Books

Gossip Girl

  1. Gossip Girl (2002)
  2. You Know You Love Me (2002)
  3. All I Want Is Everything (2003)
  4. Because I'm Worth It (2003)
  5. I Like It Like That (2004)
  6. You're the One That I Want (2004)
  7. Nobody Does It Better (2005)
  8. Nothing Can Keep Us Together (2005)
  9. Only in Your Dreams (2006) (written by ghost-writer)
  10. Would I Lie To You? (2006) (written by ghost-writer)
  11. Don't You Forget About Me (2007) (written by ghost-writer)
  12. I Will Always Love You (2009) (written by ghost-writer)

The It Girl

This series was written by a ghost-writer, with guidance from Cecily von Ziegesar.

  1. The It Girl
  2. Notorious
  3. Reckless
  4. Unforgettable
  5. Lucky
  6. Tempted
  7. Infamous
  8. Adored
  9. Devious
  10. Classic

Gossip Girl: The Carlyles

This series is actually written by Annabelle Vestry, though Cecily von Ziegesar's name is on the spine and front.

  1. Gossip Girl: The Carlyles (2008)
  2. You Just Can't Get Enough (2008)
  3. Take A Chance on Me (2009)
  4. Love the One You're With (2009)

Cum Laude

  1. Cum Laude (June 1, 2010 from Hyperion)[12][13] (Republished under the name "Class" in 2011)

Notes

  1. ↑ http://www.colby.edu/colby.mag/issues/spr01/alumni/90s.shtml
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 http://www.gossipgirl.net/author/
  3. ↑ Von Ziegesar, Cecily (December 18, 2008). "At 'Nutcracker' With My Family, a Duck Amid the Swans". The New York Times.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 http://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/books/12058/
  5. ↑ http://www.abcmedianet.com/Web/progcal/dispDNR.aspx?id=092507_06
  6. ↑ http://www.abcmedianet.com/web/progcal/dispDNR.aspx?id=100207_05
  7. ↑ http://www.abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/Story?id=3628866&page=2
  8. ↑ Gonzalez, Sandra (May 16, 2011). "'Gossip Girl' author Cecily von Ziegesar guests on season finale – EXCLUSIVE PHOTO". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved May 17, 2011.
  9. ↑ "Yen Press to Adapt von Ziegesar's Gossip Girl Novels". Anime News Network. December 4, 2009. Retrieved December 4, 2009.
  10. ↑ http://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/books/12058/index2.html
  11. ↑ http://www.colby.edu/colby.mag/issues/current/articles.php?articleid=410&dept=editorial&issueid=36
  12. ↑ Lee, Felicia R. (June 6, 2008). "'Gossip Girl' Author Aims Older". The New York Times.
  13. ↑ http://www.hyperioncatalogs.com/Hyperion/1279_1385_313936393230.htm

External links