Biography
I was born in Tappan, N.Y., in 1937. I am a graduate of Barnard College and have a doctorate in American Studies from New York University.
My first published work was an essay submitted by my Freshman English professor to the College Board Review, perhaps the event that directed me to academic book publishing after college. After a year as an editorial assistant, I began writing novels on the side, evenings and weekends. I found a literary agent for my first effort. (Fortunately, he was unable to sell it.) My second novel, The Best of Intentions, was published by William Morrow and in England by Macmillan. From there I went on to publish four further novels, one of which, The Woman Who Went Away, is now "back in print" in the Authors Guild/i-universe program.
My doctoral dissertation, A Dutch Family in the Middle Colonies, 1660-1800, was published by Rutgers University Press, as was a second history on the Dutch in New York and New Jersey in the nineteenth century: Zion on the Hudson. I have published numerous articles on the Dutch in America, listed in My Works on this website, and am a Charter Fellow of the New Netherland Institute, and a Fellow of The Holland Society of New York and of the New York Academy of History.
Novels published, 1968-1985:
The Best of Intentions (New York: William Morrow, 1968; London: Macmillan, 1968).
Three Women (New York: Belmont-Tower Books), 1972.
A Perfect Stranger (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1973; London: New English Library, 1974; other countries, 1974-77).
The Woman Who Went Away (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1981).
Greek Revival (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1985).
Historical Books Published Since 1988:
Tappan: 300 Years, 1686-1986 (Tappantown Historical Society, 1988). (General Editor.)
A Dutch Family in the Middle Colonies, 1660-1800 (New Brunswick and London: Rutgers University Press, 1991; paperback edition, 1998).
Zion on the Hudson: Dutch New York and New Jersey in the Age of Revivals (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2000; rprt., 2005).
New Netherland in a Nutshell: A Concise History of the Dutch Colony in North America (Albany, NY: New Netherland Institute, 2012).
A Catch of Grandmothers (A historical poem) (Historical Society of Rockland County, 2004).
Land So Fair (A historical novel), 2008.
Note: Essays and Chapters Published Since 1990 Appear Under "My Works"