Ann M. Sperber

Ann M. Sperber (born Aenne Sperber; June 20, 1935 – February 11, 1994) was an American author known for her biographies of Edward R. Murrow and Humphrey Bogart. A native of Vienna, Sperber graduated from Barnard College and was a Fulbright Scholar in Germany. Her biography of Murrow was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography in 1987. The Ann M. Sperber Prize is an annual award given by Fordham University that recognizes outstanding biographies of journalists.

Early life Sperber was born in Vienna to Manfred and Liselotte Sperber. Manfred Sperber, an Austrian citizen, met Liselotte in the German city of Mannheim. They had moved from Germany to Austria in 1933, shortly after Hitler's appointment as German chancellor. Aenne Sperber was born there on June 20, 1935.

After graduating from Barnard College in 1956, Sperber was a Fulbright Scholar in Germany. While she was there, she conducted the beginnings of her research on Edward R. Murrow. She then worked as children's book editor for Putnam and McGraw-Hill. Despite the criticism, the book was one of four finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography in 1987.

Sperber spent several years researching the life of Humphrey Bogart, conducting 150 interviews and examining the Warner Bros. archives at the University of Southern California. She died on February 11, 1994; she was thought to have suffered a heart attack. After Sperber's death, Lax formed Sperber's research into a complete narrative, and Bogart was published in 1997. The two co-authors never met each other. Writing for the Los Angeles Times, film critic David Thomson said that Sperber and Lax "have written a book that sets standards for research and evidence in the life of an actor."

Sperber Prize Liselotte Sperber, who lived to be 103 years old, established the Ann M. Sperber Prize at Fordham University in 1999. The award recognizes the best biographies of journalists. The award winners, their books, and the subjects of their books, are shown below. (Information is not available for 2004 and 2008.)