John Dickerson Biography

Fast Facts

• Earned his B․A․ in English and American studies at the University of Virginia
• He and his brother would explore the grounds of Merrywood armed with bows and arrows, BB guns and ․22 rifles
• Once went to summer camp and returned to find his room completely remodeled with red furniture, red, white and blue bedspreads and blue shag carpet
• Lived in Merrywood as a child, the Georgian-style mansion where Jacqueline Kennedy grew up
• Quote: "[on Merrywood] "The house was big enough for my brother and me to have firecracker wars at one end and leave Mom and Dad undisturbed at the other․""
• Quote: "The swashbuckling independence of my childhood was not all good, and as a father I'm puzzling out how to be part of my children's lives rather than shoehorning them into mine․"
• Became the chief political correspondent for "Slate․"
• Well known as the White House correspondent for "Time" magazine
• Wrote a book called "On Her Trail" about his mother, Nancy Dickerson
• As a child, he spent a night putting plastic wood into a series of pockmarks he had made in a door in his house when he threw a fistful of pennies at his brother so that his parents wouldn't find out