Love Fiercely: A Gilded Age Romance (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2012)
Newton became a passionate preserver of New York history and published the finest collection of Manhattan maps and views in a six-volume series. Edith became the face of the age when Daniel Chester French sculpted her for Chicago’s Columbian Exposition as The Republic, a colossus intended to match the Statue of Liberty’s grandeur.
Together they battled on behalf of New York’s poor and powerless, as reformers who could never themselves want for anything. Throught it all, they sustained a strong-rooted marriage.
John Singer Sargent captured the pair at the height of their youthful romance, a portrait that captured the imagination of their peers.
From the splendid cottages of the Berkshires to the salons of 1890s Paris, Love, Fiercely is the real story of a world long relevated to fiction.
The Women of the House: How a Colonial She-Merchant Built a Mansion, a Fortune, and a Dynasty (Harcourt 2006)
The remarkable Margaret Hardenbroeck Philipse arrived in New Amsterdam from Holland in 1659, a brash and ambitious twenty-two-year-old bent on making her way in the New World. She promptly built an empire of trading ships, furs, and real estate that included all of Westchester County. The Dutch called such women “she-merchants,” and Margaret became the wealthiest in the colony, while raising five children and keeping a spotless linen closet. Mining extensive primary sources, Zimmerman brings us into the parlors, bedrooms, countinghouses, and parties of early colonial America and vividly restores a forgotten group of women to life.
Praise for The Women of the House:
“A tale of the American dream with a feminist twist.” Library Journal
“Zimmerman’s prodigious research unearths a mother lode of data on colonial American women.” Publisher’s Weekly
Praise for Made from Scratch: Reclaiming the Pleasures of the American Hearth:
“Zimmerman makes a solid case that true liberation may take a 360 degree turn, right back to the oven and stove. It may once have required an exodus from the kitchen to feel free, but we now know an unwavering truth: hearth is where it’s at.” Danny Meyer, Second Helpings from Union Square Café
“The domestic achievements of our mothers and grandmothers were not trivial. As Jean says, it is time that we reclaim the pleasures that domesticity allows us.” Linda Cobb, The Queen Of Clean
Praise for Raising Our Athletic Daughters: How Sports Can Build Self-Esteem and Save Girls’ Lives:
“Raising Our Athletic Daughters captures the spirit of all-star athletes and today’s sports-loving girls who want to grow up to be strong, capable women. It’s the jock version of Reviving Ophelia.” USA Today
“For its inspirational value, this is recommended for all public libraries.” Library Journal
“We need this book. Strong girls make strong women, and athletics is an important part of that…. Raising Our Athletic Daughters is a must read.” Billie Jean King
“Every parent with a daughter ought to read this book.” Joan Ryan, Little Girls in Pretty Boxes
Praise for Tailspin: Women at War in the Wake of Tailhook:
“A strength of Tailspin is Ms. Zimmerman’s ability to see past the predictable heroes and villains… few will fail to find it stimulating and provocative.” The New York Times
“…Comprehensive and authoritative… provocative.” Publishers Weekly
“An intelligent, inside look at one of the most embarrassing scandals in naval history… a wealth of insight…an excellent read…a brisk, readable style.” Village Voice
“Lively, detailed…Zimmerman’s Tom Wolf-esque “new journalism” style, as heavy on sights, sound effects, jargon and description as it is on “facts,” really works here to flesh out life as it is, not as the official documents say it is.” Baltimore Sun
“…A lively anecdotal style backed by meticulous research.” Us
Jean Zimmerman 