Andrew L. Erdman

Andrew L. Erdman (born 1965 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American writer and independent scholar. He is the author of three books: Beautiful: The Story of Julian Eltinge, America's Greatest Female Impersonator (Oxford University Press, 2024), Queen of Vaudeville: The Story of Eva Tanguay (Cornell University Press, 2012), and Blue Vaudeville: Sex, Morals, and the Mass Marketing of Amusement, 1895-1915 (McFarland, 2004), plus numerous articles and essays.

He began his writing career as a staff reporter at Fortune magazine and also wrote for other publications including National Lampoon and Diversions. Erdman earned a doctorate in theatre studies from the City University of New York Graduate Center in 2001 and a master's degree in social work from Yeshiva University in 2013. His writings on popular culture have appeared in Theatre Studies, Theatre Annual, and elsewhere. His writings on the topic of psychoanalysis include "Idioms of Attachment: Performative Dimensions of Object Relating, Affect, and Connection" (with M. Crocker), Psychoanalytic Review, 106(2):149-173 (2019), and "The Powerless Therapist and the Helpless Borderline: Acceptance, Aloneness, and Dyadic Joining," Psychoanalytic Social Work, 24(2):114-130 (2017).

He is the brother of playwright, librettist, and translator Harley M. Erdman of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst theatre department.