Canonical name: Van Buren, Abigail
Legal name: Philips, Pauline Esther
Birthdate: 1918-07-04
Date of death: 2013-01-16
Gender: female
Nationality: USA
Birthplace: Sioux City, Iowa, USA
Place of death: Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Places of residence: Beverly Hills, California, USA
Eau Claire, Wisconsin, USA
Education: Morningside College
Occupations: columnist
radio host
Relationships: Landers, Ann (twin sister)
Howard, Margo (niece)
Organizations: McNaught Syndicate
Universal Press Syndicate
Short biography: In 1956, Pauline Lederer told the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle that she could write a better advice column than the one she'd been reading in his newspaper. He gave her a tryout and she began writing immediately. Her pen name was Abigail Van Buren and the column was called "Dear Abby," a phrase that has since entered the cultural lexicon.

Pauline's twin sister Eppie Lederer also wrote an advice column under the pen name Ann Landers.

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Dear Abby by Abigail Van Buren

"Abby" groups her wittiest letter responses into major categories and writes an essay of introduction for each theme, generalizing the types of problems people write about in each category with a few examples. Reading her essays were the best part, as she comes across as knowing everything, (and her insights range from comical to wise), and even though my biggest complaint was how outdated this is, it was pretty fascinating how universal our problems are as many of these letters in this 1950's collection are almost identical to the ones I read by her daughter (or is it grandaughter) today!… (more)

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engpunk77 | Aug 10, 2015 |

The Best of Dear Abby by Abigail Van Buren

Pauline Esther Phillips - also known as Abigail Van Buren - was an advice columnist and radio show host who began writing her 'Dear Abby' advice column in 1956. During her decades writing the column, it became the most widely-syndicated newspaper column in the world, syndicated in 1,400 newspapers around the world with 110 millions readers. Pauline's twin sister, Esther Pauline Lederer - who took over writing the 'Ask Ann Landers' advice column after the death of Ruth Crowley, the first 'Ann Landers' in 1955 - became estranged from Pauline for a long time, after Pauline introduced 'Dear Abby' a few months after Esther began writing 'Ask Ann Landers'.

Although the sisters publicly reconciled in 1964, acrimony still existed between them until just before Esther's death from blood cancer in June of 2002. The Best of Dear Abby by Abigail Van Buren was actually one of six books written by the popular advice columnist throughout her lifetime. This book is a compilation of the most provocative questions and the wisest and wittiest answers to appear in 'Dear Abby's 33 years of syndication. I give this book an A+!

Abigail Van Buren passed away on January 16, 2013 at the age of 94. She had been battling Alzheimer's Disease for many years. Although her daughter, Jeanne Phillips, had been co-writing the column with Pauline from 1987, Jeanne assumed all writing responsibilities of 'Dear Abby' in 2002 after Pauline was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease.… (more)

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moonshineandrosefire | 1 other review | Mar 21, 2013 |

The Best of Dear Abby by Abigail Van Buren

I enjoyed reading this book. I like reading the advice columns in the newspapers, so strolling through 25 years of Dear Abby's career was very interesting. She includes letters about marriage. parenting, sexuality, smoking, infidelity, animal lovers, and aging. Some of the letters are funny (not always intentionally), some are sad, some are perplexing, and some are "not fit to print!" It's a fun read.

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GaylesStuff | 1 other review | Sep 7, 2008 |

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