Jean Zimmerman has built a decades-long career as the author of critically acclaimed fiction and nonfiction. Her work is known as much for its lucid storytelling and gripping details as it is for its historical veracity. Since 2015 she has worked as a professional arborist and has broad experience in the tree industry. Her forthcoming memoir Of Heartwood and Woundwood: An Unlikely Arborist’s Path to Courage and Joy (Broadleaf, Fall 2026) draws upon her personal health challenges and her historical acumen as well as her extensive tree knowledge.
Jean’s previous titles include Tailspin (Doubleday, 1995) about intrepid female Navy jet pilots; Raising Our Athletic Daughters (Doubleday, 1998, with Gil Reavill); Made From Scratch (Free Press, 2003), about heroic homemakers; The Women of the House (Harcourt, 2006) about powerhouse fur trader Margaret Hardenbroeck and her Colonial descendants; and Love, Fiercely: A Gilded Age Romance (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012), which focused on philanthropists I.N. Phelps Stokes and Edith Minturn. In her historical novels, Zimmerman created a fictional heroine from Dutch New York in The Orphanmaster (Viking, 2012); Savage Girl (Viking, 2014) portrayed a Gilded-Age feral child transformed, Pygmalion-style, into a New York City debutante.
As a Certified Arborist (NY-6012A), Jean has helped municipalities manage their tree populations and preserve their urban forests, and has monitored construction sites to ensure that regulations are upheld in New York City. She has worked for commercial tree companies as a project developer and inspector, supervising pruning, planting and tree care, and currently serves as Tree Warden for the Village of Ossining, New York. A New York State Urban Forestry Council board member, Jean serves as editorial director for the nonprofit, generating the monthly blog/newsletter Taking Root. Jean has published extensively in City Trees, the publication of the Urban and Community Forestry Society, and graduated from its Municipal Forestry Institute. She has chaired the Hudson Valley chapter of ReLeaf, and served as a judge for NYC Park’s Great Tree Search of 2024.
She has presented at the Massachusetts Tree Wardens and Foresters Association annual conference on the untold history of women in arboriculture; at NYC ReLeaf, the Minnesota Shade Tree Conference, and the 2025 Annual ReLeaf Conference on preserving urban trees; at the Partners in Community Forestry annual conference on female arborists climbing through the green ceiling; and at the Society of Municipal Arborists annual conference on her experiences at MFI. Jean has taught arborists in her program Writing for the Trees. For three years she chaired her village’s Tree Preservation Board.
Jean has appeared on national television and radio, including “The Today Show”; “Good Morning America”; “CBS Evening News With Dan Rather”; “Talk of the Nation”; “The Diane Rehm Show,”; “New York & Company With Leonard Lopate”; “To the Best of our Knowledge,” Wisconsin Public Radio; as well as the podcast The Gilded Gentleman.
She has also shared her work with diverse audiences at historic sites, libraries, museums, book clubs, libraries, and other venues, including the Salmagundi Club; Morris-Jumel Mansion; Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site; New York University; National Arts Club; Miami Book Fair; Bard Graduate Center for the Decorative Arts; 92nd Street Y; South Street Seaport Museum; Fraunces Tavern Museum; Mark Twain House and Museum; Millbrook Literary Festival; The Hudson River Museum;; University Settlement House; Barnard College; and Irvington Historical Society.
Jean has written for NPR Books and for the New York Times Sunday Book Review and T Magazine. Her books have been featured in many publications, including New York Times Sunday Book Review; New York Times Sunday Styles; NPR Books; USA Today; The Baltimore Sun and Good Housekeeping. Her work has received the Washington Irving Book Award, the Books for a Better Life Award, an Ann Stanford Poetry Prize and an Academy of American Poets Prize. She has been the recipient of a Fellowship from New York State Foundation of the Arts.
An honors graduate of Barnard College after coursework at Princeton University, Jean earned an MFA in writing from Columbia University School of the Arts and published her poetry widely in literary magazines. She has served as an educator for Save Ellis Island, interpreting the iconic site’s long-abandoned hospital complex for guests. She serves on the advisory board of Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct, and has written and spoken extensively about the history and flora of the trail. She has been a multi-term Fellow at Catwalk Arts Institute.
Jean lives with her husband in her hometown, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, where in 2025 she was afforded the honor of being inducted into the Hastings High School Hall of Excellence.