Betty Jean Lifton was an American author known for her

children's books A child (plural, : children) is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers ...

and books about the experiences of

adopted Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...

children.

Biography

Lifton née Kirschner was born on June 11, 1926, in Staten Island, New York. She was born to Rae Rosenblatt and adopted at the age of two by Oscar and Hilda Kirschner. She graduated from

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

in 1948. In 1952 she married the psychiatrist and author

Robert Jay Lifton Robert Jay Lifton (born May 16, 1926) is an American psychiatrist and author, chiefly known for his studies of the psychological causes and effects of wars and political violence, and for his theory of thought reform. He was an early proponent of ...

with whom she had two children. The couple resided in Japan and Hong Kong for several years the early 1960s. Around this time Lifton began writing children's books including ''Joji and the Dragon'' Morrow, 1957, ''The Dwarf Pine Tree'', Atheneum, 1963, and ''The Rice-cake Rabbit'' W.W. Norton & Company, 1966. In 1973 her book ''Children of Vietnam'' was a finalist for the

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

for Children's Books. In 1975 Lifton published ''Twice Born: Memoirs of an Adopted Daughter'' which was about her search for her birth mother. The book received attention from people who had undergone similar experiences. This, in turn, influenced Lifton to become an

open adoption Open adoption is a form of adoption in which the biological and adoptive families have access to varying degrees of each other's personal information and have an option of contact. While open adoption is a relatively new phenomenon in the west, it ...

advocate. Lifton wrote two more books about adoption ''Lost and Found: The Adoption Experience'', Dial, 1979, and ''Journey of the Adopted Self: A Quest for Wholeness'' Basic Books, 1994. In the 1990s Lifton earned a Ph.D. from

Union Institute Union Institute & University (UI&U) is a private university in Cincinnati, Ohio. It specializes in limited residence and distance learning programs. The university is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and operates satellite campuses ...

. She died on November 19, 2010, in Boston, Massachusetts. Her papers are in the

Schlesinger Library The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America is a research library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University. According to Nancy F. Cott, the Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Director, ...

at Radcliffe.

References

External links

Betty Jean Lifton
at

Open Library Open Library is an online project intended to create "one web page for every book ever published". Created by Aaron Swartz, Brewster Kahle, Alexis Rossi, Anand Chitipothu, and Rebecca Malamud, Open Library is a project of the Internet Archive, ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lifton, Betty Jean 1926 births 2010 deaths People from Staten Island American women children's writers American children's writers Adoption activists