Writer in Residence

Maureen keeps the upright piano and vintage sheet music in JFK's old bedroom. Among the memorabilia are small treasures from her beloved parents, Peggy and Mike Dowd. While she didn't inherit major furniture from them, she has more personal items, including a silver flask and a billy club from her policeman father, who died in 1971, and a framed twenties-era photograph of her mother, Peggy, dressed as a flapper. "I got her skin—that's better than a million dollars," Maureen says, acknowledging an unmistakable resemblance. It's clear she left her daughter her spirit and sense of style, too.

The paperback edition of Maureen Dowd's book Are Men Necessary? came out in October, 2006.