People like Laurence Leamer

Laurence Leamer (born October 30, 1941) is a best-selling author and journalist. Leamer is a former Ford Fellow in International Development at the University of Oregon and a former International Fellow at Columbia University. He is regarded as an expert on the Kennedy family and has appeared in numerous media outlets discussing American politics. Leamer has also written best-selling biographies of other Americans, including Johnny Carson, the Reagan family, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. He has also written a book about Donald Trump's historical resort, Mar-a-Lago.

Leamer was born in Chicago and later moved to upstate New York with his family where he attended Vestal Central High School. He attended Antioch College where he spent a year in France, studied at the Université de Besançon, and worked in a factory. He received his B.A. in History from Antioch in 1964. After his graduation, Leamer joined the Peace Corps and was stationed in the mountains of Nepal. When he returned home, Leamer studied both at the University of Oregon and the Columbia University School of Journalism, where he graduated second in his class in 1969 while being named a Pulitzer International Fellow.