Robert Mailer Anderson
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Robert Mailer Anderson (born 1968) is an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright, Grammy-nominated producer and activist. He is the author of the bestselling novel '' Boonville'', which takes place in the
Northern California Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...
town of Boonville, and the 2016 play ''The Death of Teddy Ballgame''. He is a contributor to the Anderson Valley Advertiser. Anderson is a three-time San Francisco Library Laureate and in 2016 he was presented the San Francisco Arts Medallion for his outstanding leadership in the arts. In August 2020, Anderson was appointed to the California Humanities Board of Directors by Governor
Gavin Newsom Gavin Christopher Newsom (born October 10, 1967) is an American politician and businessman who has been the 40th governor of California since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 49th lieutenant governor of California fr ...
.


Family background

Anderson was born in
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
. He is a ninth-generation native of California. Anderson and his two siblings were raised by divorced blue-collar parents. As a young man he spent five years living with his father at Grapevine Group Home for juvenile delinquents and disturbed youth, where his father was the director. He also spent time at his father's prior workplace, Fern Hill School, run by his uncle Bruce Anderson, where residents included future serial killer David Mason and Darrell Waters, who murdered one of the Fern Hill counselors. His uncle, Bruce Anderson, is the publisher of the '' Anderson Valley Advertiser'' for which Robert has been a contributor since 1984 and a fiction editor. During his time as fiction editor, Anderson attracted talents like
Daniel Handler Daniel Handler (born February 28, 1970) is an American author, musician, screenwriter, television writer, and television producer. He is best known for his children's book series ''A Series of Unfortunate Events'' and ''All the Wrong Questions ...
,
Sandow Birk Sandow Birk (born 1962 in Detroit) is an American visual artist from Los Angeles whose work deals mainly with contemporary American culture. Seven books have been published on his works and he has made two films. With an emphasis on social issue ...
, Floyd Salas and
Michelle Tea Michelle Tea (born Michelle Tomasik, 1971) is an American author, poet, and literary arts organizer whose autobiographical works explore queer culture, feminism, race, class, sex work, and other topics. She is originally from Chelsea, Massachuset ...
.


Writing career

Anderson's short story "36-28-34-7" was published by ''
Christopher Street Christopher Street is a street in the West Village neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is the continuation of 9th Street west of Sixth Avenue. It is most notable for the Stonewall Inn, which is located on Christopher St ...
'' in 1995. ''Boonville'' was published in 2001 by
Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...
independent publisher Creative Arts Book Publishing, and was then picked up for paperback reprint by
HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...
. In 2007 he co-wrote, produced, and appeared in ''
Pig Hunt The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus ...
'', a horror film set in
Northern California Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...
. Anderson's play "The Death of Teddy Ballgame" was published by San Francisco publishing press Molotov Editions in 2016. Anderson is co-writer and producer of the film ''
Windows on the World Windows on the World was a complex of dining, meeting, and entertainment venues on the top floors (106th and 107th) of the North Tower (Building One) of the original World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan. It included a restaurant calle ...
'', starring
Ryan Guzman Ryan Anthony Guzman (born September 21, 1987) is an American actor and former model, known for his lead roles as Sean Asa in '' Step Up Revolution'' and '' Step Up: All In'', part of the ''Step Up'' film series, as Noah Sandborn in the erotic ...
and
Edward James Olmos Edward James Olmos (born February 24, 1947) is an American actor, director, producer, and activist. He is best known for his roles as Lieutenant Martin "Marty" Castillo in ''Miami Vice'' (1984–1989), ''American Me'' (1992) (which he also dir ...
, as well as a graphic novel of the same name, based on the screenplay and published by
Fantagraphics Books Fantagraphics (previously Fantagraphics Books) is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, manga, magazines, graphic novels, and the erotic Eros Comix imprint. History Founding Fantagraphics was found ...
.


Personal life

Anderson lives in San Francisco. Married to the heiress Nicola Miner (daughter of
Oracle Corporation Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation headquartered in Austin, Texas. In 2020, Oracle was the third-largest software company in the world by revenue and market capitalization. The company sells da ...
cofounder
Bob Miner Robert Nimrod Miner (December 23, 1941 – November 11, 1994) was an American businessman. He was the co-founder of Oracle Corporation and the producer of Oracle's relational database management system. From 1977 until 1992, Bob Miner led prod ...
), he is a former board member of the
San Francisco Opera San Francisco Opera (SFO) is an American opera company founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola (1881–1953) based in San Francisco, California. History Gaetano Merola (1923–1953) Merola's road to prominence in the Bay Area began in 1906 when he ...
, and
SFJAZZ The SFJAZZ Center is an all-ages music venue in the Hayes Valley neighborhood of San Francisco, California, that opened in January 2013. It is considered the "first free-standing building in America built for jazz performance and education." It is ...
. During his ten years on the SFJAZZ board, Anderson spearheaded the $65 million campaign to build the
SFJAZZ Center The SFJAZZ Center is an all-ages music venue in the Hayes Valley neighborhood of San Francisco, California, that opened in January 2013. It is considered the "first free-standing building in America built for jazz performance and education." It is ...
, the first freestanding building for jazz performance and education in America. Anderson named the campaign "The World is Listening" and the phrase was later used to promote the 55th Annual
GRAMMY Awards The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
. On February 16, 2012, he and his wife hosted
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
's fundraising visit to San Francisco, at his home in
Pacific Heights Pacific Heights is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. It has panoramic views of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay, the Palace of Fine Arts, Alcatraz, and the Presidio. The Pacific Heights Residents Association defines the neig ...
. Singer
Al Green Albert Leornes Greene (born April 13, 1946), better known as Al Green, is an American singer, songwriter, pastor and record producer best known for recording a series of soul hit singles in the early 1970s, including " Take Me to the River", ...
, bassist
Les Claypool Leslie Edward Claypool (born September 29, 1963) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, filmmaker, and author. He is best known as the founder, lead singer, bassist, primary songwriter, and only continuous member of the ro ...
, harmonica player
Charlie Musselwhite Charles Douglas Musselwhite (born January 31, 1944) is an American electric blues harmonica player and bandleader, one of the white bluesmen who came to prominence, along with Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, and Elvin Bishop, as a pivotal f ...
and blues player
Booker T. Jones Booker Taliaferro Jones Jr. (born November 12, 1944) is an American musician, songwriter, record producer and arranger, best known as the frontman of the band Booker T. & the M.G.'s. He has also worked in the studios with many well-known art ...
performed for the fundraiser. Anderson was named the Colonial Standard Bearer for the 2013 Selkirk Common Riding in Selkirk, Scotland. His great-grandfather, Robert "Honolulu Bob" Anderson was a founder of the Colonial Society and received the same honor as Colonial Standard Bearer one hundred years prior, in 1913.


Activism

In June 2004, Anderson created an anti-Iraq War poster campaign which juxtaposed an Abu Graib prisoner, the American Flag, and the slogan "Got Democracy?". The poster became part of the collection at
Center for the Study of Political Graphics The Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG) is a United States non-profit, educational and research archive that collects, preserves, documents, and circulates domestic and international political posters relating to historical and conte ...
in Los Angeles. In 2019, Anderson funded
Ishmael Reed Ishmael Scott Reed (born February 22, 1938) is an American poet, novelist, essayist, songwriter, composer, playwright, editor and publisher known for his satirical works challenging American political culture. Perhaps his best-known work is '' M ...
's '' The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda'' and played the role of historian
Ron Chernow Ronald Chernow (; born March 3, 1949) is an American writer, journalist and biographer. He has written bestselling historical non-fiction biographies. He won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the 2011 American History Book Prize for his ...
for the first four staged readings that took place in January 2019 at
Nuyorican Poets Cafe Nuyorican is a portmanteau of the terms "New York" and "Puerto Rican" and refers to the members or culture of the Puerto Ricans located in or around New York City, or of their descendants (especially those raised or currently living in the N ...
.


Selected works

Books * '' Boonville'' (Creative Arts Book Company, 2001) (reprinted,
HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...
, 2003) * ''The Death of Teddy Ballgame'' (play) (Molotov Editions, 2016) Films * ''
Pig Hunt The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus ...
'' * ''
Windows on the World Windows on the World was a complex of dining, meeting, and entertainment venues on the top floors (106th and 107th) of the North Tower (Building One) of the original World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan. It included a restaurant calle ...
'' Albums * (Executive Producer)
SFJAZZ Collective The SFJAZZ Collective is an American jazz ensemble comprising nine performer/composers, launched in 2004 by SFJAZZ, a West Coast non-profit jazz institution and the presenter of the annual San Francisco Jazz Festival. Collective activities The SFJ ...
: ''The Songs of Stevie Wonder''. Winner of Outstanding Jazz Album at 45th Annual NAACP Image Awards. * (Honorary Producer)
SFJAZZ Collective The SFJAZZ Collective is an American jazz ensemble comprising nine performer/composers, launched in 2004 by SFJAZZ, a West Coast non-profit jazz institution and the presenter of the annual San Francisco Jazz Festival. Collective activities The SFJ ...
: ''Live 2006 3rd Annual Concert Tour''. * (Honorary Producer)
SFJAZZ Collective The SFJAZZ Collective is an American jazz ensemble comprising nine performer/composers, launched in 2004 by SFJAZZ, a West Coast non-profit jazz institution and the presenter of the annual San Francisco Jazz Festival. Collective activities The SFJ ...
: ''Live 2007 4th Annual Concert Tour''. * (Executive Producer) Edward Simon: ''Venezuelan Suite'' (2014). * (Executive Producer) Edward Simon: ''Latin American Songbook'' (2015) Winner of Outstanding Jazz Album at 48th Annual NAACP Image Awards. * (Executive Producer)
Miguel Zenón Miguel Zenón (born December 30, 1976) is a Puerto Rican alto saxophonist, composer, band leader, music producer, and educator. He is a multiple Grammy Award nominee, and the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship. He als ...
: ''Tipico''. 2017 Grammy nominee for Best Latin Jazz Album 2018 Grammy nominee for Best Latin Jazz Album * (Associate Producer)
Miguel Zenón Miguel Zenón (born December 30, 1976) is a Puerto Rican alto saxophonist, composer, band leader, music producer, and educator. He is a multiple Grammy Award nominee, and the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship. He als ...
: ''Identities Are Changeable''. 2017 Latin Grammy nominee for Best Latin Jazz Album. * (Executive Producer) David Sánchez: ''Carib''. Nominated for Best Latin Jazz Album at the 62nd Annual
Grammy Awards The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
and for Outstanding Jazz Album at 51st Annual
NAACP Image Awards The NAACP Image Awards is an annual awards ceremony presented by the U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP) to honor outstanding performances in film, television, theatre, music, and literature. Similar to ...
. * (Executive Producer) ''
Windows on the World Windows on the World was a complex of dining, meeting, and entertainment venues on the top floors (106th and 107th) of the North Tower (Building One) of the original World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan. It included a restaurant calle ...
'': Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.


References


External links


Anderson at the HarperCollins Publishers website
*

''Salon''
Anderson's SF haunts at "On The Town", ''San Francisco Chronicle''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Robert Mailer 1968 births Living people 21st-century American novelists Writers from San Francisco Barack Obama 2012 presidential campaign American male novelists 21st-century American male writers