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Robbyn Swan
Born
Milford, Connecticut, USA
EducationSmith College, 1984
OccupationJournalist • Author
Spouse
​
(m. 1992)​
Websiterobbynswan.com

Robbyn Swan is an American journalist and author. Her book, The Eleventh Day: The Full Story of 9/11 and Osama Bin Laden, co-authored by her husband Anthony Summers, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History.

Early life and education

[edit]

Swan was born in Milford, Connecticut and is of Italian-American heritage.[1] She graduated from Milford High School.[2]

She attended Smith College where she was a double major in Government and Russian, and graduated in 1984. Swan did post-graduate work toward an M.A. in Soviet and East European Studies at George Washington University, but did not complete the degree.[3][4] During her time at George Washington University, Swan interned with the non-profit military policy think tank, The Center for Defense Information[5] and with political magazine, The National Journal.

Career

[edit]

Swan began her career as a freelance journalist in Washington, D.C., briefly writing a weekly column for Defense News. In 1989, she was hired by Anthony Summers to conduct research for his book Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J Edgar Hoover, a biography of the powerful long-time Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.[6] Swan also worked as a researcher for author John le Carré on his book, The Night Manager.[7]

In 1992, Swan married Anthony Summers, and the pair have subsequently written five books together.[6][8]

The Arrogance of Power,[9] the couple's 2000 biography of Richard Nixon, was lauded as “the best one-volume full-length biography of Nixon ever published.”[10]  Among the book's most significant and widely reported findings were Swan's interviews with the former President's psychotherapist, Dr. Arnold Hutschnecker, and Nixon's White House abuse of the drug Dilantin.[11] The book added much new, credible detail to the accusation that, in 1968, Nixon sought to persuade South Vietnam's President Nguyen Van Thieu not to agree to join peace talks in Paris with the United States, North Vietnam and the Viet Cong. Nixon's actions, if proven, prolonged the Vietnam War and cost thousands of lives. Summers’ and Swan's reporting has since been buttressed by later Nixon biographers.[9][12]

In 2005, Swan and her husband published Sinatra: The Life,[13] a biography of Frank Sinatra that focuses on the singer's relationships with women, his politics, and his links with the Mafia. Among the book's most sensational revelations was comedian and fellow Rat Pack member, Jerry Lewis’ recollection that Sinatra had regularly carried money for the mob.[14][15]

In 2011, on the tenth anniversary of the terrorists attacks on New York and Washington, Summers and Swan published The Eleventh Day: The Full Story of 9/11 & Osama bin Laden.[16] Their book notably debunked various 9/11 conspiracy theories that accused the Bush administration of involvement with the attacks.[17] According to a review in The Telegraph [UK], the authors’ "principal criticisms are that the Bush administration was asleep at the switch on 9/11; that vital intelligence was ignored; that the FBI and CIA did not share information; and that Saudi Arabia was intimately connected to al-Qaeda and is sometimes overindulged by the US." The reviewer argued, however, that there was "no real evidence" for the claims of Summers' and Swan's sources that the CIA negotiated with Osama bin Laden prior to those attacks, or that the Agency attempted to recruit two of the hijackers as agents.[18]

The Eleventh Day was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in History[19] and was also awarded the Crime Writers’ Association's Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction in 2012.[20]

The couple's next book was 2014's Looking for Madeleine,[21] an account of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in 2007.[22] At the time of its original publication, the book drew much criticism on social media from those who believe the parents of the then three-year-old British toddler bear responsibility for her disappearance.[23][24][25] More objective commentators, though, have largely praised the couple's work on the case.[24][23] Summers, and especially Swan, are featured heavily in the eight-part 2019 Netflix original series The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann.[26]

In 2016, on the 75th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Summers and Swan released A Matter of Honor: Pearl Harbor: Betrayal, Blame, and a Family’s Quest for Justice.[27] The book was written with the cooperation of the family of Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, who was Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet at the time of the attack, and included never-before-published documents from U.S., British, and Dutch archives.[2] Pulitzer-prize winning historian, David M. Kennedy praised A Matter of Honor as “scrupulously researched and rigorously argued”.[27] Though the book went a long way toward exonerating Admiral Kimmel of the “dereliction” charge that has haunted his family for two generations, it has not yet – as the family had hoped –  led to the restoration of the Admiral's four-star rank.[28][29]

Controversies

[edit]

In 1993, Summers and Swan took part in preparing a documentary about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy for PBS's Boston affiliate WGBH's “Frontline” program. The finished program, “Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald?” strongly suggested that Oswald had acted alone in killing the President. Summers and Swan removed their names from the credits. The program, the pair said, “does not fully reflect the results of our research.”[30][31] Summers and Swan went on to more fully develop that research in a lengthy article that appeared in the December 1994 edition of Vanity Fair magazine.[32]  

Summers’ and Swan's 2005 biography of Frank Sinatra contained an allegation that, in 1969, the then 53-year-old singer had sexually assaulted a young woman in one of the guest bungalows on his Palm Beach estate. The woman in question, Susan Murphy, allowed the authors to identify her and to publish a photograph of her taken at the time.[33][34][35] Asked about the claim, a representative for the Sinatra family said only: “It sounds crazy. Frank Sinatra honored women all the time.”[34][35]

Personal life

[edit]

Swan is the fourth wife of author Anthony Summers whom she married in 1992. The couple have three children together, and Summers has two sons from previous relationships.[1]

Swan has been open about her struggle with the eating disorder anorexia nervosa, which carried on well into her adulthood, and she volunteers with the Ireland's Eating Disorders Association, Bodywhys.[36][37]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b O'Rourke, Frances (September 15, 2012). "First encounters". Irish Times. Retrieved February 12, 2020.
  2. ^ a b "Milford native co-writes book seeking to vindicate admiral blamed for Pearl Harbor attack". New Haven Register. December 3, 2016. Retrieved February 12, 2020.
  3. ^ "State of the College Address 2012". smith.edu. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
  4. ^ "Robbyn Swan - Author/journalist". LinkedIn. Retrieved 30 Jul 2020.
  5. ^ "The Center for Defense Information". Michigan State University Archive. Retrieved 30 Jul 2020.
  6. ^ a b Fitzpatrick, Richard (January 28, 2012). "Hidden life of obsessive Hoover who kept files on presidents for security". Irish Examiner. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
  7. ^ le Carré, John (2015). "Acknowledgments". The Night Manager. Random House Publishing Group. ISBN 9781101968352.
  8. ^ Lambert, Pam (March 22, 1993). "Hoover Unveiled". people.com. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
  9. ^ a b Swan, Robbyn; Summers, Anthony (2001). The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon. Penguin Books. pp. 298–306. ISBN 0140260781.
  10. ^ WEINBERG, STEVE. "The Nixon sensationalism: A failure of accountability". baltimoresun.com. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
  11. ^ Clymer, Adam (2000-08-27). "Book Offers Peek Into Nixon's Mind". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
  12. ^ Farrell, John A. (2016-12-31). "Opinion | Nixon's Vietnam Treachery". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
  13. ^ Swan, Robbyn; Summers, Anthony (2005). Sinatra: The Life. Knopf. ISBN 0375414002.
  14. ^ "Jerry Lewis says Sinatra was mob courier". UPI. 4 May 2005. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
  15. ^ Kakutani, Michiko (May 17, 2005). "Sinatra Their Way: Lots of High Jinks - The New York Times". New York Times. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
  16. ^ Swan, Robbyn; Summers, Anthony (2012). The Eleventh Day: The Full Story of 9/11 & Osama bin Laden. Ballantine Books. ISBN 978-0812978094.
  17. ^ deBurca Butler, Jonathan (September 10, 2011). "The truth is out there". Irish Examiner. Retrieved February 12, 2020.
  18. ^ Harnden, Toby (August 25, 2011). "The Eleventh Day: The Ultimate Account of 9/11 by Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan: review". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on September 1, 2011. Retrieved February 12, 2020.
  19. ^ "Finalist: The Eleventh Day: The Full Story of 9/11 and Osama Bin Laden, by Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan". pulitzer.org. Retrieved February 12, 2020.
  20. ^ "ROBBYN SWAN". thecwa.co.uk. Retrieved February 12, 2020.
  21. ^ Swan, Robbyn; Summers, Anthony (2014). Looking for Madeleine. Headline.
  22. ^ Brunt, Martin (September 7, 2014). "Madeleine: Book Sheds Light On Mystery Predator". news.sky.com. Archived from the original on September 7, 2014. Retrieved February 12, 2020.
  23. ^ a b "Tutti i colpevoli del caso Maddie". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). Retrieved 2020-07-30.
  24. ^ a b Bland, Archie (2020-06-20). "Madeleine McCann case: tabloids and trolls fill vacuum as wait goes on". The Guardian. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
  25. ^ Riegel, Ralph (October 4, 2014). "Web trolls unleash vile attacks on Irish-based Maddie authors". independent.ie. Retrieved February 11, 2020.
  26. ^ Clarke, Stewart (2019-03-14). "Controversial Documentary on British Child's Disappearance to Debut on Netflix on Friday". Variety. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
  27. ^ a b Swan, Robbyn; Summers, Anthony (2016). A Matter of Honor: Pearl Harbor: Betrayal, Blame, and a Family's Quest for Justice. Harper. ISBN 978-0062405517.
  28. ^ Swan, Anthony Summers and Robbyn (2016-12-02). "The Admiral Who Took the Fall for Pearl Harbor". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
  29. ^ Patterson, Leslie (3 Dec 2016). "SC man seeks to restore grandfather's honor, 75 years after Pearl Harbor". The State. Retrieved 30 Jul 2020.
  30. ^ POSNER, MICHAEL (16 Nov 1993). "EXPERT TIES OSWALD'S PRINTS TO RIFLE THAT KILLED JFK CONSULTANT REVERSES 1978 TESTIMONY, SAYS FOUR NEWLY FOUND PHOTOS ARE CONCLUSIVE". Buffalo News. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
  31. ^ DiEugenio, James (11 Nov 2013). "When Tony Summers Fell in Love with Patricia Lambert". Kennedys and King. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
  32. ^ Summers, Anthony; Swan, Robbyn. "THE GHOSTS OF NOVEMBER | Vanity Fair | December 1994". Vanity Fair | The Complete Archive. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
  33. ^ Swan, Robbyn; Summers, Anthony (2006). Sinatra: The Life. Vintage. pp. 318–320. ISBN 0375713700.
  34. ^ a b Hodgson, Liz (2005). "I WAS RAPED BY SINATRA. - Free Online Library". www.thefreelibrary.com. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
  35. ^ a b "Frank Sinatra — I realize how stupid that rape question sounds,..." francisalbertsinatra.tumblr.com. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
  36. ^ Naughton, Celine (24 Feb 2014). "How to boost your daughter's self-esteem". independent. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
  37. ^ Townsend, Michelle (2019-02-26). "Woman tells of how being advised to lose weight led to crippling anorexia". rsvp. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
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