Anne W. Simon

Biography

She was born Anne Rebe Wertheim, in Cos Cob, Connecticut, the daughter of Alma (née Morgenthau) and banker Maurice Wertheim. Her grandfather was ambassador Henry Morgenthau Sr. Her sisters were Josephine Wertheim Pomerance (mother of climate activist Rafe Pomerance) and Barbara W. Tuchman (mother of Jessica Mathews). In 1935, she graduated with a B.A. from Smith College and then earned a M.A. in Social Work from Columbia University.

She began her career as a writer WNYC, a radio station in New York and later worked as a television critic for The Nation. She then wrote for various publications including McCall's and Good Housekeeping. In 1964, she wrote Stepchild in the Family: A View of Children in Remarriage based on her experiences as a stepchild and as a stepparent. In 1973, No Island Is an Island: The Ordeal of Martha's Vineyard about sprawl, traffic jams, and pollution at Martha's Vineyard. In 1978, she wrote The Thin Edge: Coast and Man in Crisis about the poor condition of dunes and beaches. In 1984, she wrote, Neptune's Revenge: The Ocean of Tomorrow, was a critique of overfishing, oil spills, radioactive waste, and toxins.