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Sullivan County Historical Society History Maker Award 2006

Andrew Neiderman

Novelist and Screen Writer

                Andrew Neiderman was born in Brooklyn, but at an early age his family moved to Sullivan County in the Catskills area of New York. After attending public schools in Fallsburg, he graduated from the State University of Albany where he received his Master’s degree in English. For the next twenty-three years he taught at Fallsburg High School. He is remembered not only as an outstanding teacher, but as a department chairman, faculty president, county teachers’ association president, director of dramatics and wrestling coach. He was appointed historian for the Town of Fallsburg and wrote the Sesquicentennial History of Fallsburg Township. Also, during this time, he married the former Diane Wilson of Fallsburg. They have two children: Melissa, a teacher in the Palm Valley School in Rancho Mirage, California and Erik, a co-captain of a Lear jet who flies for a charter company out of French Valley, also in California. He and his family live in Temecula. The Niedermans have three grandchildren.

                After over two decades with the Fallsburg High School, Andrew decided that his true vocation was that of a writer and embarked on what became an extraordinarily prolific career. He is the author of eighty-six published novels, two produced screenplays and one collection of one-act plays. He is best known as the author of “The Devil’s Advocate” and as the ghostwriter behind the worldwide V.C. Andrews franchise which by now has published over one hundred and five million books in ninety-five countries and twenty-two languages. His most recent novel, “Finding Satan,” will be published by Pocketbooks on September 1 of this year.

                Currently, Andrew is executive producer of the film version of V.C. Andrews, “Rain,” for which he wrote the screenplay. The film stars Faye Dunaway, Robert Loggia, Khandi Alexander (CSI Miami) and features Brooklyn Sudano (daughter of Donna Summer) as Rain. It will be a direct to DVD release most likely available this coming spring, 2007, under the production banner of Merv Griffin Entertainment. He has also completed the libretto for the stage musical version of “The Devil’s Advocate” and is working closely with composers in Holland for the production which will probably take place in London.

                Looking ahead, he is planning his next thriller after “Finding Satan” which will be entitled “Unholy Birth” and is scheduled to be published in the fall of 2007 and the next V.C. Andrews novel, “Scattered Leaves” which should be available in March of 2007. At present, “Finding Satan” is being offered to producers in Hollywood for feature film development and Mr. Neiderman has become a consultant with Lifetime for the development of a multi-V.C. Andrews film package.

                 His productivity and ability to work in different media and in different capacities in these media is impressive. One critic wrote of Neiderman that he “writes reality based horror novels that involve humans battling other humans in the eternal battle of good vs. evil.”

 Both with great respect for his work ethic and his artistic goal to describe “the eternal conflict,” the Society is pleased to honor Andrew Neiderman as the 2006 History Maker.