Elizabeth Léonie Simpson was born in Pasadena, California and raised as the fourth daughter of the paleontologist, George Gaylord Simpson, and step-mother, Anne Roe. 

Growing up in Washington, D.C. and New York City, she attended the University of Michigan from which she received degrees both in English and Spanish Language and Literature as well as a Master of Arts in Linguistics.  As a single parent with three children, she returned to California, taught Spanish in high school, and later became an editor and writer for Harcourt Brace in San Francisco, a job whish financed her doctoral program at the University of California (Berkeley).  After graduation, she took a post at the University of Southern California where she completed a post-doctoral year in developmental psychology, culminating in a special interest in political and moral development over the life-span.

Several years of strenuous consulting followed and, possibly as a result of exhaustion, she developed tubercular meningitis which devastated her capacity to remember so badly that, for some time, she could neither read nor write.  After a prolonged recovery, she returned to academia, teaching and writing.  Of these two endeavors, for her writing is more provocative and interesting.  She has authored, or co-authored, 17 books of fiction and nonfiction, as well as published essays and poetry.

Currently she lives in Saratoga, in northern California, with her husband, John Wurr.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Elizabeth Léonie Simpson

Non-Fiction Books:

Out of Our Lives  IUniverse, 2007  (Editor and contributor to one of 24 diverse chapters of memoirs by elders in retirement)

Virgins to Crime: First Time Criminality in Old Age, in process.

Notes on An Emergency  2^nd Edition  IUniverse, 2005

Notes on An Emergency  New York: Norton, 1982  (A report of near-fatal disease, lengthy recovery, and accommodation to disability)

Humanistic Education: An Interpretation  Cambridge, MA Ballinger, 1976  (A study of contemporary programs)

The American Revolutionary Experience, 1776-  , Discussion and a Guide  Los Angeles: Western Center for Program development, University of California, 1974  Co-authored with Page Smith and Bramwell Fletcher

Democracy’s Stepchildren: A Study of Need and Belief  San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1971  (A report on an empirical study of the relationship between adolescent psychological deprivation and beliefs)

The Social Sciences: Concepts and Values  New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanodich, 1970-1990  Co-author textbook series levels 1 through 8.  Three Editions. 

Substantive Report of Field Research:

River Run Deep, River Run Strong: Confluence in Humanistic Education  A report to the Ford Foundation, Public Education, 1974   

Chapters: 

“The Writer of Personal History” in Elizabeth Léonie Simpson (Ed.) Out of Our Lives  IUniverse, 2007  Pp. 1-7

“A Convent Christmas”  in Elizabeth Léonie Simpson (Ed.)  Out of Our Lives IUniverse, 2007  Pp. 90-97

“Self-Disclosure, Privacy and Self-Deception” in  A. C. Richards and T. Schumrum (Eds.)  Invitation to Dialogue: The Legacy of Sidney M. Jourard.   Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt, 1999.  Pp. 151-159
“Public Education:  Preparation for Citizenship?”  in W. T. Anderson (Ed.), Rethinking Liberalism.  New York: Avon Books, 1983.  Pp. 133-150

“Virtue in Old Age” in J. R. Staude (Ed.), Wisdom and Old Age.  Berkeley, CA: Ross Books, 1981.  Pp. 113-131

“The Creativogenic School: Developing Positive Human Personality” in P. Scharf (Ed.),  Readings in Moral Education.  Minneapolis: Winston Press, 1978.  Pp. 210-218

“The Person in Community: The Need to Belong” in L. M. Berman and J. A. Roderick (Eds.), Feelings, Valuing, and the Art of Growing: Insights into the Affective.  Washington, D. C.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1977.  Pp. 181-200

“Socialization” in L. Rubin (Ed.), Curriculum Handbook: Administration and Theory.  Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1977.  Pp. 287

“Preference and Politics: Values in Political Socialization” in S. Renshon (Ed.), Handbook of Political Socialization.  New York: The Free Press, 1977.  Pp. 362-368

“Humanistic Psychology: An Attempt to define Human Nature” in D. Nevill (Ed.) Humanistic Psychology: New Frontiers.  New York: Gardner, 1977.  Pp. 67-86

“A Holistic Approach to Moral Development and Behavior” in T. Lickona (Ed.), Moral Development and Behavior: Theory, Research and Social Issues.  New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976.  Pp. 159-180

Articles: 

“Bethany”  Palo Alto Review, Fall 2007, 19-22

“What Can a Free People Believe?”  Politics of Trust Journal, forthcoming

“Choosing Crime in Old Age”  Psychology Today, forthcoming

“Granny Roe’s Oatmeal Bread” The Small Pond Magazine, XXXV, 2, Spring, 1998, 18

“Turkey for the Happy Heart”  Co-Op News, LII, 16, November 1987, 5

“The Self with Others: Character Education in the Schools”, AHP Perspective, June 1986, 14

“The Dead End: A Note on the Social Evolution of Practical Ethics” Antioch Review, Summer 1981, 357-365

“Occupational Endeavor as Life History: Anne Roe”  Psychology of Women, March 1978, 453-456

“Nothingness”  Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 19, 3, Summer 1979, 5-12

“The Right to Individual Judgment”  Educational Leadership, March 1978, 453-456

“The Growth of Confluent Education”  Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 5, 2, Fall 1976, 9-13

“Moral Development Research: A Case Study of Scientific Cultural Bias”, Human Development, 17, 2, 1974, 81-106

“Can the Humanities Provide a Humanistic Education?”  California Humanities Association Bulletin, Winter, 1973, 5-8

“An End to Ethnocentrism: A Bilateral Model for Training in Intercultural Studies”  Notre Dame Journal of Education, Fall 1971, 219-234

“Who Becomes a Democrat?"  Educational Horizons, Fall 1971, 33-40

“Perspectives”  California Humanities Association Bulletin,  Fall, 1971, 10-12

“On Educational Goals”  Teachers College Record, 72, 4, May 1971, 559-565

“Teaching Culture as a Foreign Language”  Phi Delta Kappan,  January 1971, 300-302

“Selecting Out: Implications of Deprivation and Need for Curriculum Planning”  The School Counselor, 17, 2, November 1969, 113-117

“The Individual in the Group”  Phi Delta Kappan, 1, 6, February 1969, 322-324

“The Humanities and the Arts: A Practical View”  Teachers College Record, 71, 1, September 1969, 11-16

Book Reviews:

“Ashley Montague and Floyd Matson on The Human Connection”  AHP Newsletter, March 1981 

“Self-Report of a Complex Simplifier”  Review of The Journals of A. H. Maslow, Vols. I-II, Contemporary Psychology, 1980, 25, 913-914

“Piagetian Research: Compilation and Commentary”  Sohan and Celia Modgil (Eds.)  Review in The Moral Education Forum, 4,3, Fall 1979, 31-32

Novels:

Stranger from Home, Second Edition    Xlibris, 2004

Noah’s Women,   Tranmontane    Xlibris, 2002 

I, Lilith,  New York: Smith Publications, 1991

Stranger From Home,  Smith Publications, 1979

Tramontane: a Novella,  in The Smitb, 1969, 47-139  (Under the pseudonym of E. S. Rock)

Short Stories:

“Renata”  The South Carolina Review, Fall 2000, 170-174

“Renata”  Palo Alto Review, Fall 1998, 49-52

“Fruit of the Garden"  Satire, Winter, 1968

“Storm”  Western Humanities Review , Summer, 1968

“Home”  North American Review, Spring, 1968

“Goodbye, Doctor”  Provincetown Review, Winter 1963

“Mass for the Dead”  Ave Maria, November 1962

Narrative Poetry:

“Nacimiento Birth”  Sou’wester,  Spring 1997, 25, 2, 30-35

Short Poetry:

Five Poems  Los Altos, California:  The P’Nye Press, 1970

“Pantheist”  Voices of the Grieving Heart  Moraga, California: Cypress Point Press, 1994

Among other journals, poems have appeared in Prairie Schooner, The Educational Forum, and American Weaver

Play:

Mirror in the Land  Three Acts.  Performed at the Saratoga Playhouse, December 2007

Radio:

KPFA (Berkeley, California)  Stories for Children, 1963