Close To My Heart: An Autobiography [Hardcover]

Dorothy Sterling (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2005

This is the autobiography of a quiet woman whose exceptional social conscience and actions are an example of the influence one person can have on society without being either rich or in a lofty political position. As a young woman, Dorothy Sterling's concern for working people in America led her to the Communist Party in the 1930's, a refuge for many with noble intentions. In the 1950s, her concern for the plight of African Americans led her to help integrate her own community of Rye, New York. She went on to become one of the most prolific authors of works of African American history, first for young readers with books such as Mary Jane, the first book about a young black girl growing up in the South. Later works for adults were equally important and influential, including a documentary book on black women's lives which would become a play performed throughout the country and a life of Abolitionist Abby Kelly. Sterling's fascination and concern for the environment led her to write a wonderful natural history guide to Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, Long Island, and the islands in between. Still active at 90, her most recent triumph was to open her own road to oystermen, whose access to local salt flats had been denied by wealthy summer residents.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sterling, an activist and author of more than 30 nonfiction works, many of them African-American biographies, turns her gaze inward in this humble and steady autobiography. Sterling traces her life, from her German immigrant beginnings in the Bronx, through her long career writing books for Time/Life, the many political stances she’s taken (communist, anti-racist, feminist), to her current life, which finds her at age 90, widowed and living alone. Sterling is sober and smart about her life’s defining moments. She describes significant historical experiences with personal perspective and unfailing authenticity, including her involvement in the Federal Writers’ Project during the New Deal, the underground 1950s Communist movement, the Civil Rights movement and other events. But she also creates a valuable portrait of her domestic life, describing her struggle to be a journalist, activist, wife and mother all at once. It’s at these moments that Sterling’s writing is most powerful and her quality of character most evident. Sterling’s story is one of profound persistence, a testament to the one-foot-in-front-of-the-other approach to making the world a better place. Speaking of her book Tender Warriors, which documented the desegregation of schools from children’s points of view, she writes: "I still wanted to grab people and say, ‘This is what is going on. These are the heroes we should be celebrating.’ " Her message applies to this memoir, too.
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From Booklist

Sterling, a prolific writer of black history books for children and adults, examines her life of social conscience and commitment to progressive politics. Looking back on 90 years, Sterling recalls the immigrant experience of early-twentieth-century New York and her involvement in the Communist Party, as a result of which she and her husband faced social ostracism, government scrutiny, and eventual disillusionment. Maintaining her progressive ideals, Sterling combined her interests in social justice and a budding career as a writer to pioneer children's books on black historical figures and recorded the impact of desegregation on black school children in 1958 in Tender Warriors. Battling prejudices against women and work as well as biases against black history books, Sterling's body of work includes Mary Jane; Freedom Train: The Story of Harriet Tubman; and We Are Sisters: Black Women in the Nineteenth Century. She intersperses accounts of changes in the status of women as professionals, developments in the book industry, and her life as daughter, wife, and mother against the backdrop of major social changes. A fascinating memoir. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Quantuck Lane Pr & the Mill Rd; First Edition edition (February 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593720041
• ISBN-13: 978-1593720049
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,292,914 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A well lived life, May 15, 2009

By 

Lynn Walters (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Close To My Heart: An Autobiography (Hardcover)

Ms. Sterling writes about her life as a gifted child, a socialist/communist in the 1930s, raising her children with the ideals of socialism and the consequences of that in her life. I was moved by her idealism and that of her friends during that time. She tempers that with disappointment when she later learns about what things were truly like under Stalin.

Her writing career seemed to be much of being in the right place at the right time, but also because of her idealism she was able to point out injustices. I thought she was wonderfully creative in learning to tell the stories of African Americans from their points of view. And also sensitive to her place when she chose to move on to write the story of white abolitionists instead.

However, I was disappointed in places where she seems to give herself credit for the outcomes of certain events when she played a very minor role. For example, at the end she tells about a property dispute involving two different groups on Cape Cod. Her part in this was to write a couple of letters to the editor while the two groups fought it out in court. Yet, it is written as if she is the reason for the success of the "underdog" group.

She lived a very long, productive and creative life and this book illustrates some of that.

I was sad to note that she died on December 1, 2008.