Jean Zimmerman
AUTHOR

Jean Zimmerman

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After publishing books for decades, Of Heartwood and Woundwood: An Unlikely Arborist’s Path to Courage and Joy (Broadleaf, Fall 2026) is a departure for me — not the history or historical fiction I’ve produced throughout my career, but rather an intimate memoir. In it I talk about the inestimable value of personal reinvention, specifically my unexpected but thoroughly wonderful pivot from writing books to caring for trees. My extraordinary experiences as an arborist shored me up when I was diagnosed not long ago with a serious illness, ALS. I hope this insider’s story about the tree world will inspire readers to take a walk in the woods — or even take a chance on changing their own lives. In Of Heartwood and Woundwood I draw upon my personal health challenges as well as my continuing love of history and my knowledge of the tree world. Since 2015 I have worked as an ISA-Certified Arborist (NY-6012A) and I’ve been lucky enough to have had considerable experience in the industry. As a Certified Arborist, I have helped municipalities manage their tree populations, and worked to ensure that tree preservation regulations are upheld in New York City. I currently serve as Tree Warden for the Village of Ossining, New York. A New York State Urban Forestry Council board member, I also write and edit the nonprofit’s webzine Taking Root. I have taught writing to arborists in my program Writing for the Trees, and for three years I chaired the Tree Preservation Board in my hometown. As a New York-based writer, I’ve made the history of Manhattan a central focus of earlier fiction and nonfiction. Love, Fiercely: A Gilded Age Romance (Harcourt, 2012) is a portrait of a real, iconic couple of Gilded Age Manhattan, philanthropists I.N. Phelps Stokes and Edith Minturn. The fictional Savage Girl (Viking, 2014), a mystery with a twist of fable, depicts a “feral child” who gets transformed Pygmalion style into a Gilded Age debutante. In my historical novel The Orphanmaster I tell the story of a spunky, beautiful heroine and her sensitive yet manly lover who together embark on a quest to solve a series of grisly crimes in 1663 New Amsterdam. My other titles include Tailspin: Women at War in the Wake of Tailhook (Doubleday, 1995) about intrepid female Navy jet pilots; Raising Our Athletic Daughters: How Sports Can Build Self-Esteem and Save Girls’ Lives (Doubleday, 1998, with Gil Reavill); Made From Scratch: Reclaiming the Pleasures of the American Hearth (Free Press, 2003), about heroic homemakers; The Women of the House How a Colonial She-Merchant Built a Mansion, a Fortune, and a Dynasty ( Harcourt, 2006) about powerhouse fur trader Margaret Hardenbroeck and her Colonial descendants. An honors graduate of Barnard College, I earned a graduate degree in writing from the Columbia University School of the Arts, published my poetry widely in literary magazines, and received a Writing Fellowship from New York Foundation for the Arts. I serve on the advisory board of Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct, and have been a multi-term Fellow at Catwalk Arts Institute in Catskill, New York. I live with my husband in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY.
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