Andrew's Bio

Andrew Sullivan was born in August 1963 in a small town in Southern England, South Godstone, and grew up in a neighboring town, East Grinstead, in West Sussex. He attended Reigate Grammar School, and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he took a First in Modern History and Modern Languages. He was also President of the Oxford Union in his Second Year at college, and spent his summer vacations as an actor in the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain.

In 1984, he won a Harkness Fellowship to Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, and earned a Masters degree in Public Administration in 1986. In his summers, he interned as an editorial writer at The Daily Telegraph in London, and at the Centre For Policy Studies, Margaret Thatcher's informal think-tank, where he wrote a policy paper on the environment, called 'Greening The Tories.' At Harvard, he was best known for acting, appearing as Hamlet, Alan in Peter Shaffer's 'Equus,' and Mozart in Shaffer's 'Amadeus.' In the summer of 1985, he travelled through thirty of the United States.

In the summer of 1986, he applied for internships at the New York Times, the National Review, and The New Republic. The New Republic accepted him, and he wrote his first article for the magazine on the cult of bodybuilding. He then returned to Harvard to start a PhD in Political Science. He finished his General Exams in 1987, and taught moral and political theory in the Government Department for several semesters. He subsequently took a break from academia, and worked as an associate editor at The New Republic, editing and writing for both the political and literary sections of the magazine, while free-lancing for the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Daily Telegraph, Esquire, and the short-lived New York magazine, Seven Days. In January 1989, he returned to Harvard to complete his doctorate, 'Intimations Pursued: The Voice of Practice in the Conversation of Michael Oakeshott.' The thesis won the Government Department Prize for a dissertation in political science.

In 1990, he returned to Washington, D.C., where he free-lanced for the Telegraph and started a monthly column for Esquire. He was soon back at The New Republic as deputy editor under Hendrik Hertzberg, and in June of 1991 was appointed acting editor, at the age of 27. In October, he took over as editor, and presided over 250 issues of The New Republic, resigning in May 1996. In those years, The New Republic's circulation grew to well over 100,000 and its advertising revenues grew by 76 percent. The magazine also won three National Magazine Awards for General Excellence, Reporting, and Public Interest. The first two awards overlapped with Rick Hertzberg's tenure at the magazine.

Sullivan's tenure at TNR was often turbulent, controversial and pioneering. The magazine expanded its remit beyond politics to cover such topics as the future of hip-hop, same-sex marriage, and affirmative action in the newsroom. Writers such as Douglas Coupland and Camille Paglia supplemented more traditional political writing by authors such as Michael Kinsley, Mickey Kaus and John Judis. Under Sullivan, the magazine campaigned for early intervention in Bosnia, for homosexual equality, and against affirmative action. TNR also published the first airing of 'The Bell Curve,' the explosive 1995 book on IQ, and 'No Exit,' an equally controversial essay that was widely credited with helping to torpedo the Clinton administration's plans for universal health coverage. In 1996, Sullivan was named Editor of the Year by Adweek magazine.

In the early 1990s, Sullivan became known for being openly homosexual, and for pioneering such issues as gays in the military and same-sex marriage. His 1993 TNR essay, 'The Politics of Homosexuality,' was credited by the Nation magazine as the most influential article of the decade in gay rights. His 1995 book, 'Virtually Normal: An Argument About Homosexuality,' was published to positive reviews, became one of the best-selling books on gay rights, and was translated into five languages. He followed it with a reader, 'Same-Sex Marriage: Pro and Con,' and testified before Congress on the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996. His second book, 'Love Undetectable: Notes on Friendship, Sex, and Survival,' was published in 1998 in the United States and Britain. It was a synthesis of three essays on the plague of AIDS, homosexuality and psycho-therapy, and the virtue of friendship. Sullivan tested positive for HIV in 1993, and remains in good health.

In the late 1990s, Sullivan worked as a contributing writer and columnist for the New York Times Magazine, a regular contributor to the New York Times Book Review, and a weekly columnist for the Sunday Times of London. His New York Times cover stories, 'When Plagues End,' a description of the changing AIDS epidemic in 1996, and 'The Scolds,' an analysis of the decline of American conservatism in 1998, became national talking points. His 1999 essay, 'What's So Bad About Hate,' is included in the 'Best American Essays of 1999.' His 2000 cover story on testosterone, 'Why Men Are Different,' provoked a flurry of controversy, as well as a cover-story in Time, and a documentary on the Discovery channel. Since 2002, Sullivan has been a columnist for Time Magazine, and a regular guest on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" and NBC's "Chris Matthews' Show."

In the summer of 2000, Sullivan became one of the first mainstream journalists to experiment with blogging, and soon developed a large online readership with andrewsullivan.com's Daily Dish. Andrew has blogged independently and for Time.com, but in February 2007 Andrew moved his blog to The Atlantic Online where he now writes daily.

Sullivan has spoken at many universities and colleges, including Harvard, Yale, Boston University, Boston College, Northwestern, the University of Washington in Seattle, the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Emory, the University of Michigan, the University of Texas at Austin, Oxford University, and Milton Academy. He has appeared on over 100 radio shows across the United States, as well as on Nightline, Face The Nation, Meet The Press, Crossfire, Hardball, The O'Reilly Factor, The Larry King Show, Reliable Sources, Hannity and Colmes, and many others. He remains a senior editor at The New Republic, and his book "The Conservative Soul" was published by HarperCollins in 2006.