About Edward Herrmann
Edward Herrmann had a true love for audiobooks, which shone in his trailblazing performances. As he put it himself, “I love the spoken word. I love hearing it. The way the words can seduce you.” Throughout his rich and storied career, Edward Herrmann, who passed away in 2014 at the age of 71, won numerous Audie Awards and Earphone Awards, an AudioFile Golden Voice Award, a Tony Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and many others.
Herrmann had a certain knack for bringing histories and biographies to life. His voice was authoritative but warm, and lent the perfect dash of gravitas to true tales of courage and heroism like Unbroken, The Boys in the Boat, and A Beautiful Mind. He also narrated the personal stories of many giants of modern history, including Albert Einstein, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Lou Gehrig, and Robert Ebert. In the world of fiction, he tackled favorites such as The Maltese Falcon, The Alienist, and Atlas Shrugged. The common thread is that each story grabs you and takes you on a journey.
As an audiobook performer, Herrmann believed his role was “reading a story to someone, not narrating,” and that approach made Herrmann a favorite among early fans of the audiobook format. “It’s a very specialized art form,” he once said. “The voice is important in a way that it is not in film or television. The whole character and color of the emotional life of a scene must be conveyed by the voice of the actor alone.”
From the time he was a young boy, Edward Herrmann loved how stories stirred his imagination, and he eventually pursued drama studies at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art on a Fulbright Fellowship. He began acting on stage on Broadway, but quickly transitioned to film and TV where he’s beloved for his appearances on M*A*S*H, Grey’s Anatomy, The Good Wife, Gilmore Girls, The History Channel, The Wolf of Wall Street, and The Aviator. He also (fittingly) portrayed Franklin D. Roosevelt on screen three times.
Listener Favorites
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The Boys in the Boat
- Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
- By: Daniel James Brown
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 14 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The number one New York Times best-selling story about American Olympic triumph in Nazi Germany, the inspiration for the PBS documentary The Boys of '36, broadcast to coincide with the 2016 Summer Olympics and the 80th anniversary of the boys' gold medal race. Out of the depths of the Depression comes an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times - the improbable, intimate account of how nine working-class boys from the American West showed the world at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin what true grit really meant.
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Dear Publishers of Audio Books
- By Lynn on 08-04-14
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Unbroken
- A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
- By: Laura Hillenbrand
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 13 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Why we think it’s a great listen: Seabiscuit was a runaway success, and Hillenbrand’s done it again with another true-life account about beating unbelievable odds. On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared....
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Indescribable
- By Janice on 12-01-10
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Einstein
- His Life and Universe
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 21 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Why we think it’s a great listen: You thought he was a stodgy scientist with funny hair, but Isaacson and Hermann reveal an eloquent, intense, and selfless human being who not only shaped science with his theories, but politics and world events in the 20th century as well. Based on the newly released personal letters of Albert Einstein, Walter Isaacson explores how an imaginative, impertinent patent clerk became the mind reader of the creator of the cosmos.
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Surprise: Two books in one!
- By Henrik on 04-20-07
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The Tommyknockers
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 27 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Writer Bobbi Anderson becomes obsessed with digging up something she's found buried in the woods near her home. With the help of her friend, Jim Gardener, she uncovers an alien spaceship. Though exposure to the Tommyknockers, who piloted the alien ship, has harmful effects on residents' health, the people of Haven develop a talent for creating innovative devices under their increasingly malignant influence.
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Better Than Expected King Goes Sci-Fi, Dark, Weird
- By Andy on 08-27-19
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The Boys in the Boat
- Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
- By: Daniel James Brown
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 14 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The number one New York Times best-selling story about American Olympic triumph in Nazi Germany, the inspiration for the PBS documentary The Boys of '36, broadcast to coincide with the 2016 Summer Olympics and the 80th anniversary of the boys' gold medal race. Out of the depths of the Depression comes an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times - the improbable, intimate account of how nine working-class boys from the American West showed the world at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin what true grit really meant.
-
-
Dear Publishers of Audio Books
- By Lynn on 08-04-14
-
Unbroken
- A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
- By: Laura Hillenbrand
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 13 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why we think it’s a great listen: Seabiscuit was a runaway success, and Hillenbrand’s done it again with another true-life account about beating unbelievable odds. On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared....
-
-
Indescribable
- By Janice on 12-01-10
-
Einstein
- His Life and Universe
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 21 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why we think it’s a great listen: You thought he was a stodgy scientist with funny hair, but Isaacson and Hermann reveal an eloquent, intense, and selfless human being who not only shaped science with his theories, but politics and world events in the 20th century as well. Based on the newly released personal letters of Albert Einstein, Walter Isaacson explores how an imaginative, impertinent patent clerk became the mind reader of the creator of the cosmos.
-
-
Surprise: Two books in one!
- By Henrik on 04-20-07
-
The Tommyknockers
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 27 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Writer Bobbi Anderson becomes obsessed with digging up something she's found buried in the woods near her home. With the help of her friend, Jim Gardener, she uncovers an alien spaceship. Though exposure to the Tommyknockers, who piloted the alien ship, has harmful effects on residents' health, the people of Haven develop a talent for creating innovative devices under their increasingly malignant influence.
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Better Than Expected King Goes Sci-Fi, Dark, Weird
- By Andy on 08-27-19
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Presumed Innocent
- By: Scott Turow
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 15 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Rusty Sabich, family man and the number-two prosecutor of Kindle County, is handed an explosive case—the brutal murder of a woman who happens to be his former lover. A shocking turn of events suddenly transforms him from the accuser into the accused... and plunges him into a nightmare world where nothing seems real and no one can be PRESUMED INNOCENT.
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Excellent Book, Gripping Entertainment!
- By Glen on 04-16-10
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The Bully Pulpit
- Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism
- By: Doris Kearns Goodwin
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 36 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Goodwin describes the broken friendship between Teddy Roosevelt and his chosen successor, William Howard Taft. With the help of the "muckraking" press, Roosevelt had wielded the Bully Pulpit to challenge and triumph over abusive monopolies, political bosses, and corrupting money brokers. Roosevelt led a revolution that he bequeathed to Taft only to see it compromised as Taft surrendered to money men and big business. The rupture led Roosevelt to run against Taft for president, an ultimately futile race that gave power away to the Democrats.
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Makes You Forget You Live in the 21st Century Good
- By Cynthia on 01-11-14
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The Johnstown Flood
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
At the end of the last century, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was a booming coal-and-steel town filled with hardworking families striving for a piece of the nation's burgeoning industrial prosperity. In the mountains above Johnstown, an old earth dam had been hastily rebuilt to create a lake for an exclusive summer resort patronized by the tycoons of that same industrial prosperity, among them Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and Andrew Mellon.
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A page-turner! HIstory that reads like a novel
- By Susan K Donley on 06-17-05
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Atlas Shrugged
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Abridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
As passionate as it is profound, Atlas Shrugged is one of the most influential novels of our time. In it, Rand dramatizes the main tenets of objectivism, her philosophy of rational selfishness. She explores the ramifications of her radical thinking in a world that penalizes human intelligence and integrity.
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Edward Hermann's masterful performance.
- By Shawn Levasseur on 07-17-08