Jean Zimmerman’s books have explored the history and culture of the Hudson Valley. Her acclaimed The Women of the House: How a Colonial She Merchant Built a Mansion, a Fortune, and a Dynasty (2006, Harcourt) is the primary source about the Philipse family, who settled in Yonkers in the 1600s and went on to found a 57,000-acre estate encompassing present-day Westchester County. Her dual biography Love, Fiercely, A Gilded Age Love Story profiles a pair of well-to-do philanthropists, one of whom grew up at lavish “Locust Wood,” the estate of billionaire 19th-century merchant Robert Bowne Minturn in Hastings-on-Hudson, Zimmerman’s hometown.

Affiliation: Columbia