Emily Weisberg Sunstein (April 28, 1924 – April 21, 2007) was an American campaigner, political activist and biographer.

Biography

Born Emily Weisberg in

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

, and graduated from high school there. She married stockbroker Leon Sunstein, Jr. in 1943 a year before earning a bachelor's degree in Art History in 1944 from

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely foll ...

. The couple then moved to Elkins Park before raising three children in Wyncote. Before beginning her writing career, Sunstein was active in civic affairs. A charter member of

Americans for Democratic Action Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) is a liberal American political organization advocating progressive policies. ADA views itself as supporting social and economic justice through lobbying, grassroots organizing, research, and supporting pro ...

(founded in 1947), she later became the first woman to serve as head of the

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

chapter of the American Jewish Committee.http://www.philly.com/inquirer/obituaries/20070425_Emily_W__Sunstein__82__Phila__political_advocate_and_author.html She sat on the State Commission for Human Relations from 1970 to 1974, was the head of the state Conference on Women's Economics Issues and the head of the Philadelphia YWCA in 1975. She and her husband built a sprawling modern cedar home overlooking Fairmount Park in the mid-1970s. In 1989, her first book, ''

Mary Shelley Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel '' Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an early example of science fiction. She also ...

: Romance and Reality'' (Little, Brown and Co., 1989) was published to critical acclaim. She won the Modern Language Association Prize for Independent Scholars in 1989. She moved away from politics and started to enjoy other passions such as writing, collecting art, entertaining and horticulture. She remained active in Jewish causes until she became ill in the mid-1990s.

Writings

*''Mary Shelley : Romance and Reality'' - 1991 - 514 pages *''A Different Face: The Life of Mary Wollstonecraft''. New York: Harper and Row, 1975. .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sunstein, Emily W 1924 births 2007 deaths 20th-century American Jews American social activists Activists from Philadelphia Vassar College alumni 20th-century American biographers American women biographers 20th-century American women Mary Wollstonecraft scholars 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American women