Leamer has also written best-selling biographies of other Americans, including Johnny Carson, the Reagan family, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

His book, Capote's Women, was a national bestseller, and was adapted as the second season of Feud starring Naomi Watts and directed by Gus Van Sant.

Leamer was born in Chicago and later moved to upstate New York with his family where he attended Vestal Central High School.

In the period following the death of John F. Kennedy, Jr., Leamer served as the on-air consultant for MSNBC's coverage of the plane crash and subsequent funeral.

[4] Leamer has also written a biography of Johnny Carson titled King of the Night, which spent over six weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list.

Leamer's work on the life of famed mountaineer Willi Unsoeld was purchased by Robert Redford's production company to be turned into a film[2] that remains in the development stages.

His 2013 book The Price of Justice is the story of two Pittsburgh lawyers and their decade and a half struggle against the most powerful coal baron in American history.