Betty Jean Lifton

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Betty Jean Lifton
BornBlanche Rosenblatt
(1926-06-11)June 11, 1926
Staten Island, New York
DiedNovember 19, 2010(2010-11-19) (aged 86)
Boston, Massachusetts

Betty Jean Lifton was an American author known for her children's books as well as books about the experiences of adopted children and her own experiences as an adopted person.

Biography

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Betty Jean Lifton was born Blanche Rosenblatt on June 11, 1926, in Staten Island, New York.[1] She was born to Rae Rosenblatt, and later adopted at age two by Oscar and Hilda Kirschner.[2] Her name after adoption became Betty Jean Kirschner. She graduated from Barnard College in 1948. In 1952 she married the psychiatrist and author Robert Jay Lifton, with whom she had two children.[1]

The couple resided in Japan and Hong Kong during the 1960s. Around this time Lifton began writing children's books, including Joji and the Dragon,[3] The Dwarf Pine Tree,[4] and The Rice-cake Rabbit.[5][6][2] Her collaboration with the Japanese photographer Eikoh Hosoe produced four additional books, including Taka-chan and I,[7] A Dog's Guide to Tokyo,[8] A Place Called Hiroshima,[9] and Return to Hiroshima.[10] Her 1972 children's book, Children of Vietnam,[11] was a finalist for the 1973 National Book Award.[12]

In 1975, Lifton published Twice Born: Memoirs of an Adopted Daughter, which was about her search for her birth mother.[13][14] It also included details of her life in Japan in the 1960s as well as the difficulty of adoptees who sought copies of their own pre-adoption birth records.[13] The publication of Twice Born, in addition to the recent publication of the 1973 book The Search for Anna Fisher by Florence Fisher, built momentum for a developing reform movement focusing on the rights of adult adopted people.[1]

Lifton wrote additional books about adoption, including Lost and Found: The Adoption Experience,[15] Journey of the Adopted Self: A Quest for Wholeness, [16][17] and the children's books Tell Me a Real Adoption Story[18] and I'm Still Me.[19]

In the 1990s Lifton earned a Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Union Institute.[17]

She died on November 19, 2010, in Boston, Massachusetts.[17] Her papers are in the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute.[2]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Fox, Margalit (2010-11-27). "Betty Jean Lifton Dies at 84; Urged Open Adoptions". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-06-02.
  2. ^ a b c "Collection: Papers of Betty Jean Lifton". Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  3. ^ Lifton, Betty Jean (1957). Joji and the Dragon. New York: Morrow.
  4. ^ Lifton, Betty Jean (1963). The Dwarf Pine Tree (1st ed.). New York: Atheneum.
  5. ^ Lifton, Betty Jean (1966). The Rice-cake Rabbit (1st ed.). W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
  6. ^ "Betty Jean Lifton". New York Review Books. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  7. ^ Lifton, Betty Jean; Hosoe, Eikoh (1967). Taka-chan and I: A Dog's Journey to Japan by Runcible (1st ed.). New York: Norton.
  8. ^ Lifton, Betty Jean; Eikoh, Hosoe (1969). A Dog's Guide to Tokyo (1st ed.). New York: W.W. Norton.
  9. ^ Lifton, Betty Jean; Hosoe, Eikoh (1985). A Place Called Hiroshima (1st ed.). Kodansha International Ltd.
  10. ^ Lifton, Betty Jean; Hosoe, Eikoh (1970). Return to Hiroshima (1st ed.). New York: Atheneum. OCLC 68725.
  11. ^ Lifton, Betty Jean; Fox, Thomas C. (1972). Children of Vietnam (1st ed.). Atheneum.
  12. ^ "Children of Vietnam". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  13. ^ a b Lifton, Betty Jean (1975). Twice Born: Memoirs of an Adopted Daughter. McGraw Hill.
  14. ^ "TWICE BORN: Memoirs of an Adopted Daughter". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  15. ^ Lifton, Betty Jean (2009). Lost & Found: The Adoption Experience (3rd ed.). University of Michigan Press.
  16. ^ Lifton, Betty Jean (1994). Journey of the Adopted Self: A Quest for Wholeness. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465008117.
  17. ^ a b c Fox, Margalit (27 November 2010). "Betty Jean Lifton Dies at 84; Urged Open Adoptions". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  18. ^ Lifton, Betty Jean (1994). Tell Me a Real Adoption Story. Knopf Books for Young Readers. ISBN 9780679906292.
  19. ^ Lifton, Betty Jean (1981). I'm Still Me. New York: A.A. Knopf.
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