Cader, Michael 1961-

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CADER, Michael 1961-

PERSONAL: Born December 15, 1961, in Baltimore, MD; son of Gordon (a physician) and Rona (a computer programmer; maiden name, Blumenthal) Cader; married Lisa Lebowitz (a writer), April 17, 1992; children: Jonah, Gordon. Education: Brown University, B.A. (with honors), 1993. Religion: Jewish.

ADDRESSES: Office—Cader Books, 2 Park Place, #4, Bronxville, NY 10708. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Workman Publishing, New York, NY, editor, 1983-85; Cader Books, New York, NY, publisher and president, 1988—; writer.

WRITINGS:

(Coauthor) Everybody for President: Everything You Need to know to Run for the Highest Office in the Land, Workman Publishing (New York, NY), 1984.

(Editor, with Debby Roth) Eat These Words: A Delicious Collection of Fat-Free Food for Thought, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1991.

The Cat Who Would Be President, or How I Clawed My Way to the Top, Penguin (New York, NY), 1992.

(Editor, with wife, Lisa Lebowitz Cader) But I Wouldn't Want to Live There!: Wicked Wisdom from Seasoned Travelers, Running Press (New York, NY), 1993.

Meditations for Cats Who Do Too Much: Learning to Take Things One Life at a Time, Penguin (New York, NY), 1993.

(Editor) The Name Book, Cader Books (New York, NY), 1993.

(Editor) Saturday Night Live: The First Twenty Years, photographs by Edie Baskin, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1994.

(With Fabienne Marsh) Dave's World: The Unofficial Guide to the Late Show with David Letterman, Warner Books (New York, NY), 1995.

(Editor) That's Funny: A Compendium of over 1,000 Great Jokes from Today's Hottest Comedians, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 1996.

(With Bradford Telford) The Rules for Cats: 4,000-Year-Old Secrets for Controlling Your Owner, Dutton (New York, NY), 1997.

Saturday Night Live: The Official Anniversary Album, Crown (New York, NY), 1999.

The Name Book, Gramercy Books (New York, NY), 2000.

Kiss This Book, Chronicle (San Francisco, CA), 2001.

The Ultimate Book of Lists: People, Places, and Things, Pan Macmillan (New York, NY), 2001.

That's Funny, Mom!, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 2002.

Also author, with Seth Godin, of "Show Me Language Books" (Spanish, Japanese, Italian, French, Russian, German), Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 1991, and of Famous Mugs: Arresting Photos and Felonious Facts for Hundreds of Stars behind Bars, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO).

SIDELIGHTS: Michael Cader has had a varied career in the publishing industry, having written books, worked as an editor, and established himself as a publisher. His work is frequently suitable for browsing; for example, he coedited a collection of memorable quotes about food in Eat These Words: A Delicious Collection of Fat-Free Food for Thought, and collaborated with his wife, Lisa, on But I Wouldn't Want to Live There: Wicked Wisdom from Seasoned Travelers, a volume which similarly reprints comments about various places around the world. In The Ultimate Book of Lists: People, Places, and Things, Cader has provided lists about subjects ranging from hockey teams to Japanese emperors. Cader has also served up humor in several volumes that both parody popular self-help books and point out feline foibles, including The Rules for Cats: 4,000-Year-Old Secrets for Controlling Your Owner, The Cat Who Would Be President, or How I Clawed My Way to the Top, and Meditations for Cats Who Do Too Much: Learning to Take Things One Life at a Time.

Cader has served as editor for numerous books about late-night television, including Saturday Night Live: The First Twenty Years, which focuses on the history of the popular television series. The volume includes reminiscences by performers who appeared on the show, background information, texts of some of the best-known sketches, and numerous photographs. It is a "lavishly illustrated scrapbook," noted a writer for Publishers Weekly. A People reviewer noted, "the effect of so much comedy gathered into one volume is exhilaration," and Ilene Cooper wrote in Booklist: "The book's best element is its wanna-take-another-look layout, featuring terrific photos by Edie Baskin." Cader updated his retrospective on the popular comedy show in 1999 with Saturday Night Live: The Official Anniversary Album. He explored another late-night success in Dave's World: The Unofficial Guide to the Late Show with David Letterman, which provides a timeline of Letterman's career and quotes on the comedian from old friends and cultural experts. "Fine for those who can't get enough of that gap-toothed grin," remarked Erica K. Cardozo in her Entertainment Weekly review of the book.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Birmingham Post, January 5, 2002, review of The Ultimate Book of Lists, p. 53.

Booklist, September 1, 1994, Ilene Cooper, review of Saturday Night Live: The First Twenty Years, p. 2.

Entertainment Weekly, October 7, 1994, review of Saturday Night Live, p. 66; February 3, 1995, Erica K. Cardozo, review of Dave's World: The Unofficial Guide to the Late Show with David Letterman, p. 48.

Glamour, June, 1991, p. 106.

Library Journal, April 1, 1993, Mary Ann Parker, review of But I Wouldn't Want to Live There: Wicked Wisdom from Seasoned Travelers, p. 119; October 15, 1994, Scott H. Silverman, review of Saturday Night Live, p. 61.

New York Times, November 28, 1994, review of Saturday Night Live, p. B2.

People, May 13, 1991, p. 32; October 24, 1994, review of Saturday Night Live, pp. 28-29; March 10, 1997, review of The Rules for Cats, p. 32.

Publishers Weekly, September 12, 1994, review of Saturday Night Live, p. 78.

School Library Journal, March, 1995, Mathew Singer, review of Saturday Night Live, p. 237.