Happy 95th, Dorothy Sterling! ("Mary Jane," 1959)

She lives in Wellfleet, Massachusetts.

From Wikipedia:
"Sterling is the author of more than 30 books, mainly non-fiction
historical works for children on the origins of the women's and anti-
slavery movements, civil rights, segregation, and nature, as well as
mysteries."

From "Major Authors and Illustrators for Children and Young Adults":
Sterling is the eldest of two daughters born to Joseph and Elsie May
Dannenberg, New Yorkers of German Jewish ancestry. Joseph Dannenberg,
a lawyer and the first person in his family to attend college, had a
law practice in Midtown Manhattan. Sterling's mother graduated from
normal school and taught for a year before getting married. "Mother
was not only pretty and bright, she was an excellent cook, a capable
seamstress (she made many of our dresses), and an energetic and
efficient housekeeper," Sterling related in an essay for Something
about the Author Autobiography Series (SAAS). "But she refrained from
passing along these skills to her daughters," continued Sterling.
"Even when we were teenagers we neither cooked nor cleaned, sewed nor
ironed, nor made our beds. . . . I concluded that mother,
subconsciously at least, had thought that if we didn't know how to do
housework, we would never have to do it. How did she think we were to
escape the chores which were every woman's fate? One obvious answer
was to marry men rich enough to employ servants. . . . The other was
to 'be somebody' ourselves.".......

.........Sterling moved rapidly through elementary school in a special
program for intellectually gifted children. She was sixteen years old
when she entered Wellesley College. By that time, the Great Depression
had begun. "As the only girl in the dorm who subscribed to the New
York Times, I read of bank failures, farm holidays and thousands, then
millions of unemployed," Sterling remarked in SAAS. "These events were
scarcely noted on Wellesley's serene and beautiful campus. By
sophomore year, when there were hunger marchers in Washington and
people lining up for handouts at soup kitchens, Wellesley girls began
knitting for 'the poor.' With the country tumbling down about our
ears, this response did not seem adequate to me."

Sterling was discouraged from following her interest in biology at
Wellesley. One of her professors told her there were no jobs for women
scientists. "Actually there were a handful of women biologists and
geneticists then, but I, a scientific illiterate, had never heard of
them and was easily convinced to turn back to liberal arts," Sterling
said in SAAS. "It was a decision I still regret."

(end)

On the back cover of "Mary Jane":
"It won't be easy." That's what Grandpa says when he learns that Mary
Jane is going to be one of the first Negro children to go to Wilson
Junior High.

Grandpa is right. It is the hardest thing that Mary Jane has ever
done. No one in school will walk with her or eat with her. They spill
ink on her books. They call her names.

The pain of going to an integrated school is almost more than Mary
Jane can bear. But she doesn't give up.

And then one day she learns she is not really alone.


http://images.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&q=%22dorothy+sterling%22+bo...&btnG=S
(covers)

WRITINGS:

FICTION FOR CHILDREN

* Sophie and Her Puppies (Junior Literary Guild selection),
photographs by Myron Ehrenberg, Doubleday, 1951.

* The Cub Scout Mystery, illustrated by Paul Galdone, Doubleday,
1952.

* Billy Goes Exploring (Junior Literary Guild selection),
photographs by Ehrenberg, Doubleday, 1953.

* The Brownie Scout Mystery, illustrated by Reisie Lonette,
Doubleday, 1955.

* The Silver Spoon Mystery (Junior Literary Guild selection),
illustrated by Grace Paull, Doubleday, 1958.

* Secret of the Old Post-Box, illustrated by Paull, Doubleday,
1960.

* Ellen's Blue Jays, illustrated by Winifred Lubell, Doubleday,
1961.

NONFICTION FOR CHILDREN

* Trees and Their Story (Junior Literary Guild selection),
photographs by Ehrenberg, Doubleday, 1953.

* Insects and the Homes They Build, photographs by Ehrenberg,
Doubleday, 1954.

* (With husband, Philip Sterling) Polio Pioneers: The Story of the
Fight against Polio, photographs by Ehrenberg, Doubleday, 1955.

* The Story of Mosses, Ferns, and Mushrooms, photographs by
Ehrenberg, Doubleday, 1955.

* Wall Street: The Story of the Stock Exchange, photographs by
Ehrenberg, Doubleday, 1955.

* The Story of Caves (Junior Literary Guild selection),
illustrated by Lubell, Doubleday, 1956.

* Creatures of the Night, illustrated by Lubell, Doubleday, 1960.

* Caterpillars, illustrated by Lubell, Doubleday, 1961.

* Forever Free: The Story of the Emancipation Proclamation,
illustrated by Ernest Crichlow, Doubleday, 1963.

* Spring Is Here!, illustrated by Lubell, Doubleday, 1964.

* Fall Is Here!, illustrated by Lubell, Natural History Press,
1966.

* It Started in Montgomery: A Picture History of the Civil Rights
Movement, Scholastic Book Services, 1972.

NONFICTION FOR YOUNG ADULTS

* United Nations, NY, photographs by Ehrenberg, Doubleday, 1953,
revised edition published as United Nations, 1961.

* Freedom Train: The Story of Harriet Tubman, illustrated by
Crichlow, Doubleday, 1954.

* Captain of the Planter: The Story of Robert Smalls, illustrated
by Crichlow, Doubleday, 1958.

* Lucretia Mott: Gentle Warrior, Doubleday, 1964, reprinted as
Lucretia Mott, Feminist Press at City University New York, 1999.

* (With Benjamin Quarles) Lift Every Voice: The Lives of Booker T.
Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, Mary Church Terrell, and James Weldon
Johnson, illustrated by Crichlow, Doubleday, 1965.

* The Outer Lands: A Natural History Guide to Cape Cod, Martha's
Vineyard, Nantucket, Block Island, and Long Island, illustrated by
Lubell, Natural History Press, 1967, revised edition, Norton, 1978.

* Tear down the Walls!: A History of the American Civil Rights
Movement, Doubleday, 1968.

* The Making of an Afro-American: Martin Robison Delany,
1812-1885, Doubleday, 1971.

* Black Foremothers: Three Lives, illustrated by Judith Eloise
Hooper, Feminist Press, 1979, 2nd edition, 1988.

EDITOR

* I Have Seen War: Twenty-five Stories from World War II, Hill &
Wang, 1960.

* Speak out in Thunder Tones: Letters and Other Writings by Black
Northerners, 1787-1865, Doubleday, 1973.

* The Trouble They Seen: Black People Tell the Story of
Reconstruction, Doubleday, 1976, reprinted as The Trouble They Seen:
The Story of Reconstruction in the Words of African-Americans, Da Capo
Press, 1994.

* We Are Your Sisters: Black Women in the Nineteenth Century,
Norton, 1984, dramatized as We Are Your Sisters, dramatization by
Stephanie von Hirschberg and Ardelle Striker, performed at Proctor's
Too, 1998.

* Turning the World Upside Down: Proceedings of the Anti-Slavery
Convention of American Women Held in the City of New York, May 9-12,
1837, Feminist Press, 1987.

OTHER

* (With Donald Gross) Tender Warriors (adult nonfiction),
photographs by Ehrenberg, Hill & Wang, 1958.

* Mary Jane (young adult novel), illustrated by Crichlow,
Doubleday, 1959.

* (Contributor) Notable American Women, Harvard University Press,
1980.

* (Contributor) Dictionary of American Negro Biography, Norton,
1982.

* Ahead of Her Time: Abby Kelley and the Politics of Anti-Slavery
W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 1991.


Lenona.