Occupation Writer and journalist Children Anne Fausto-Sterling Spouse Philip Sterling (m. 1937) | Role Writer Name Dorothy Sterling | |
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Born November 23, 1913 ( 1913-11-23 ) New York, New York Died December 1, 2008, Wellfleet, Massachusetts, United States Education Barnard College (1934), Wellesley College Books Freedom Train: The Story of H, We Are Your Sisters: Bl, Ahead of Her Time: Abby Kell, Black Foremothers: Three Liv, Speak Out in Thunder Tones Similar People Anne Fausto‑Sterling, W E B Du Bois, Paula Vogel | ||
Dorothy Sterling (née Dannenberg) (November 23, 1913 – December 1, 2008) was an American writer and historian. After college, she worked as a journalist and writer in New York for several years, including work for the Federal Writers’ Project.
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In 1937 she married Philip Sterling (died 1989), also a writer. Her daughter, Anne Fausto-Sterling, is a noted biologist, the Nancy Duke Lewis Professor of Biology and Gender Studies at Brown University, and is married to playwright Paula Vogel.
Career
Sterling worked for Time from 1936 to 1949 and was then assistant bureau chief in Life’s news bureau from 1944 to 1949.
Starting in the 1950s, she authored 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.
Politics
Sterling belonged to the Communist Party USA in the 1940s. Even after leaving the party, she said socialism was her long-term goal. Political leanings may explain political action later in life. In early 1968, Sterling and her husband joined 448 writers and editors in placing a full-page ad in the New York Post declaring their intention to refuse to pay taxes for the Vietnam War. In 1984, she challenged President Ronald Reagan's decision to award the Medal of Freedom to Whittaker Chambers, writing, "With all due respect to the dead, is this man, who has left behind him so many doubts about his own role, an appropriate recipient of the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award?"