Anthony Summers
Encyclopedia
Anthony Bruce Summers is the non-fiction
author of seven best-selling investigative books. He is an Irish citizen, and has been working for some twenty years with Robbyn Swan, who is now his co-author and fifth wife. After studying modern languages at Oxford University, his early work took him from labouring jobs to freelance reporting to London newspapers, to Granada TV’s World in Action
– the UK’s first tabloid public affairs programme, to writing the news for the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, then back to England to the BBC’s 24 Hours, a pioneering late evening show that brought viewers coverage from all over the world. Summers became the BBC’s youngest producer at 24, travelling worldwide and sending filmed reports from the conflicts in Vietnam and the Middle East, and across Latin America. A main focus, though, was on the momentous events of the 60s and 70s in the United States – with on-the-spot reports on Martin Luther King’s assassination and on Robert F. Kennedy
’s bid for the presidency. He smuggled cameras into the then Soviet Union to obtain the only TV interview with dissident physicist Andrei Sakharov
– when he was under house arrest, having just won the Nobel Prize. Before moving on from the BBC
, Summers became an Assistant Editor of the prestigious weekly programme Panorama
. Long based in Ireland, he has since the mid-70s concentrated on investigative non-fiction, usually taking from four to five years to produce a book – conducting in-depth research, combining digging in the documentary record with exhaustive interviewing.
documents.
"Ten years have passed, and Osama bin Laden is no more. Yet there is a lingering sense that the nation and the world have been let down, deprived of the right to know — deceived, even — on a matter of greater universal concern that any event in living memory."
, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover
and President Richard Nixon
. He also wrote biographies of celebrities Marilyn Monroe
and Frank Sinatra
.
His main works include:
The File on the Tsar (1976), "Meticulous research... elegantly controversial" Harrison Salisbury, The New York Times
Conspiracy (on the John F. Kennedy assassination, 1980, reissued as Not in Your Lifetime, 1998), "Deserves to be read and taken seriously by all those who care about truth or justice." Professor Robert Blakey, former Chief Counsel of the House Select Committee on Assassination. The book won the Golden Dagger, The Crime Writers' Association's award for non-fiction.
Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe
(1985), "A remarkable performance... the ghost of Marilyn Monroe cries out on these pages" New York Times
Honeytrap (on the Profumo
sex/spy scandal, 1987), one of several books used as background for the film Scandal (1989), starring John Hurt
Official and Confidential, The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover
(1993), "An important book that should give us all pause, especially policy makers" Philadelphia Inquirer
The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon
(2000) "Devastating... no one interested in history, politics, government or the American presidency should ignore it." Chicago Tribune
Sinatra: The Life (2005), "The first fully documented biography... a definitive, 'generational' work." Vanity Fair
.
, Summers took a middle road – avoiding the wilder conspiracy theories while throwing doubt on the findings of the Warren Commission
. He reported in detail, adding the results of his own interviewing, on the finding of Congress' Assassinations Committee that the "committee believes, on the basis of the available evidence, that President John F. Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy". As did the Committee, he allowed for the possibility that major organized crime figures combined with anti-Castro elements – perhaps with the connivance of some CIA personnel – were behind the plot.
Non-fiction
Non-fiction is the form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be fact...
author of seven best-selling investigative books. He is an Irish citizen, and has been working for some twenty years with Robbyn Swan, who is now his co-author and fifth wife. After studying modern languages at Oxford University, his early work took him from labouring jobs to freelance reporting to London newspapers, to Granada TV’s World in Action
World in Action
World in Action was a British investigative current affairs programme made by Granada Television from 1963 until 1998. Its campaigning journalism frequently had a major impact on events of the day. Its production teams often took audacious risks and gained a solid reputation for its often...
– the UK’s first tabloid public affairs programme, to writing the news for the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, then back to England to the BBC’s 24 Hours, a pioneering late evening show that brought viewers coverage from all over the world. Summers became the BBC’s youngest producer at 24, travelling worldwide and sending filmed reports from the conflicts in Vietnam and the Middle East, and across Latin America. A main focus, though, was on the momentous events of the 60s and 70s in the United States – with on-the-spot reports on Martin Luther King’s assassination and on Robert F. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F...
’s bid for the presidency. He smuggled cameras into the then Soviet Union to obtain the only TV interview with dissident physicist Andrei Sakharov
Andrei Sakharov
Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident and human rights activist. He earned renown as the designer of the Soviet Union's Third Idea, a codename for Soviet development of thermonuclear weapons. Sakharov was an advocate of civil liberties and civil reforms in the...
– when he was under house arrest, having just won the Nobel Prize. Before moving on from the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, Summers became an Assistant Editor of the prestigious weekly programme Panorama
Panorama
A panorama is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film/video, or a three-dimensional model....
. Long based in Ireland, he has since the mid-70s concentrated on investigative non-fiction, usually taking from four to five years to produce a book – conducting in-depth research, combining digging in the documentary record with exhaustive interviewing.
Latest book
The Eleventh Day: The Ultimate Account of 9/11 (July 2011) is an investigation of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, published by Random House to mark the tenth anniversary of 9/11. It is the first comprehensive independent account of the event that traumatized America and the world, the product of five years’ research and access for the first time to tens of thousands of previously withheld 9/11 Commission9/11 Commission
The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, also known as the 9/11 Commission, was set up on November 27, 2002, "to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 attacks", including preparedness for and the immediate response to...
documents.
"Ten years have passed, and Osama bin Laden is no more. Yet there is a lingering sense that the nation and the world have been let down, deprived of the right to know — deceived, even — on a matter of greater universal concern that any event in living memory."
Major writings
Summers has written about historical figures including Tsar Nicholas II, President John F. KennedyJohn F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover
J. Edgar Hoover
John Edgar Hoover was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. Appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation—predecessor to the FBI—in 1924, he was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director until his death in 1972...
and President Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
. He also wrote biographies of celebrities Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
and Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
.
His main works include:
The File on the Tsar (1976), "Meticulous research... elegantly controversial" Harrison Salisbury, The New York Times
Conspiracy (on the John F. Kennedy assassination, 1980, reissued as Not in Your Lifetime, 1998), "Deserves to be read and taken seriously by all those who care about truth or justice." Professor Robert Blakey, former Chief Counsel of the House Select Committee on Assassination. The book won the Golden Dagger, The Crime Writers' Association's award for non-fiction.
Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
(1985), "A remarkable performance... the ghost of Marilyn Monroe cries out on these pages" New York Times
Honeytrap (on the Profumo
Profumo
Profumo may refer to* Alessandro Profumo , Italian banker, the CEO of the Gruppo Unicredito* Francesco Profumo , Dean of the Engineering Faculty of the Politecnico di Torino* Baron Profumo of the Kingdom of Sardinia...
sex/spy scandal, 1987), one of several books used as background for the film Scandal (1989), starring John Hurt
John Hurt
John Vincent Hurt, CBE is an English actor, known for his leading roles as John Merrick in The Elephant Man, Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Mr. Braddock in The Hit, Stephen Ward in Scandal, Quentin Crisp in The Naked Civil Servant and An Englishman in New York...
Official and Confidential, The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover
J. Edgar Hoover
John Edgar Hoover was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. Appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation—predecessor to the FBI—in 1924, he was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director until his death in 1972...
(1993), "An important book that should give us all pause, especially policy makers" Philadelphia Inquirer
The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
(2000) "Devastating... no one interested in history, politics, government or the American presidency should ignore it." Chicago Tribune
Sinatra: The Life (2005), "The first fully documented biography... a definitive, 'generational' work." Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
.
Television work
In addition to the coverage listed above, Anthony Summers sent reports on subjects as varied as:- The civil war between royalists and republicans in Yemen. He broke the story that the Egyptians were using gas bombs against civilians.
- Interviews with members of the Charles MansonCharles MansonCharles Milles Manson is an American criminal who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders carried out by members of the group at his instruction...
family while they were still at large after the Tate-Labianca murders. - Interviews with figures as contrasted as Chile’s President Salvador AllendeSalvador AllendeSalvador Allende Gossens was a Chilean physician and politician who is generally considered the first democratically elected Marxist to become president of a country in Latin America....
– soon to die in a bloody right-wing revolution – and Republican presidential candidate Barry GoldwaterBarry GoldwaterBarry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. An articulate and charismatic figure during the first half of the 1960s, he was known as "Mr...
. - Summers made two visits to Cuba, where he suffered the fate of many before and after him – waiting for but not getting the promised interview with Fidel CastroFidel CastroFidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
. - In Bolivia, defying a government ban on journalists, he travelled over rugged country to the site of Che GuevaraChe GuevaraErnesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...
’s death. - The Tupamaro guerilla movement in Uruguay.
- The tension in Argentina between the Catholic hierarchy and “worker priests.”
- The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s operations on the Mexican border.
- A reflection on the Americans who returned from the Vietnam WarVietnam WarThe Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
.
Kennedy controversy
With his book on the assassination of President John F. KennedyJohn F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
, Summers took a middle road – avoiding the wilder conspiracy theories while throwing doubt on the findings of the Warren Commission
Warren Commission
The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was established on November 27, 1963, by Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963...
. He reported in detail, adding the results of his own interviewing, on the finding of Congress' Assassinations Committee that the "committee believes, on the basis of the available evidence, that President John F. Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy". As did the Committee, he allowed for the possibility that major organized crime figures combined with anti-Castro elements – perhaps with the connivance of some CIA personnel – were behind the plot.
External links
- Anthony Summers official site
- Anthony Summers at Random HouseRandom HouseRandom House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
- Anthony Summers at www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk