Biography

Jean Stein grew up in Los Angeles, the daughter of Dr. Jules Stein and his wife, Doris. She authored of two books and a pioneer of the narrative form of oral history. She is presently at work on a cultural and political history of Los Angeles, to be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Farrar, Straus and Giroux is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger W. Straus, Jr. and John C. Farrar. Known primarily as Farrar, Straus in its first decade of existence, the company was renamed several times, including Farrar, Straus and Young and Farrar, Straus and Cudahy...

. In 1970, Stein authored, with George Plimpton

George Plimpton

George Ames Plimpton was an American journalist, writer, editor, and actor. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review.-Early life:...

 as editor, a biography of Robert F. Kennedy

Robert F. Kennedy

Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F...

, entitled: American Journey: The Times of Robert Kennedy.

She wrote the best-selling book, Edie: American Girl, based on the life of socialite/actress and Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol

Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...

 muse Edie Sedgwick

Edie Sedgwick

Edith Minturn "Edie" Sedgwick was an American actress, socialite, model and heiress. She is best known for being one of Andy Warhol's superstars. Sedgwick became known as "The Girl of the Year" in 1965 after starring in several of Warhol's short films in the 1960s...

, in 1982. Norman Mailer

Norman Mailer

Norman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...

 wrote of Edie: "This is the book of the Sixties that we have been waiting for."

Jean Stein worked as a magazine editor. In the late 1950s, she was an editor at The Paris Review. From 1990-2004, she was editor of the literary/visual arts magazine Grand Street with Walter Hopps

Walter Hopps

Walter Hopps was an American museum director and curator of contemporary art. His obituary in the Washington Post described him as a "sort of a gonzo museum director -- elusive, unpredictable, outlandish in his range, jagged in his vision, heedless of rules."Hopps was born in Eagle Rock, Los...

 as art editor. The magazine actively sought out international authors, visual artists, composers and scientists to bring to its readership.

Personal background

Jean Stein's father was Jules C. Stein (1896-1981), founder of the Music Corporation of America

Music Corporation of America

MCA, Inc. was an American talent agency. Initially starting in the music business, they would next become a dominant force in the film business, and later expanded into the television business...

 (MCA) and the Jules Stein Eye Institute at UCLA. Her mother, Doris J. Stein (1902-1984), established the Doris Jones Stein Foundation. Jean Stein's sister, Mrs. Susan Shiva, died on January 3, 1983 from breast cancer, as did Doris Stein.

Education

Jean Stein was educated at the Katharine Branson School in Ross, California

Ross, California

Ross is a small incorporated town in Marin County, California, United States, just north of San Francisco. Ross is located west-southwest of San Rafael, at an elevation of 36 feet . The population was 2,415 at the 2010 census...

, then at Chateau Brilliantmont in Lausanne

Lausanne

Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and is the capital of the canton of Vaud. The seat of the district of Lausanne, the city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva . It faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura mountains to its north-west...

, Switzerland, after which she graduated from Miss Hewitt's Classes

Hewitt School

The Hewitt School is an independent, K-12 girls school in New York City, New York.The school serves girls from Kindergarten through 12th Grade, in three divisions: Lower School , Middle School , and Upper School .-History:...

 in New York City. Thereafter, she spent two years at Wellesley College and then attended classes at the University of Paris

University of Paris

The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...

 (formerly known as the Sorbonne

Sorbonne

The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...

). While in Paris she interviewed William Faulkner

William Faulkner

William Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner worked in a variety of media; he wrote novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essays and screenplays during his career...

, with whom she had an affair, and, according to the historian Joel Williamson, offered the interview to the The Paris Review in exchange for being made an editor there.

She returned to New York and worked in 1955 as assistant to director Elia Kazan

Elia Kazan

Elia Kazan was an American director and actor, described by the New York Times as "one of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history". Born in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, to Greek parents originally from Kayseri in Anatolia, the family emigrated...

 on the original production of Tennessee Williams's

Tennessee Williams

Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...

 Pulitzer Prize

Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...

 winning play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a play by Tennessee Williams. One of Williams's best-known works and his personal favorite, the play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955...

. Jean Stein's first marriage in 1958 was to William vanden Heuvel

William vanden Heuvel

William Jacobus vanden Heuvel is an attorney, businessman and author, as well as a former diplomat.He is the father of Katrina vanden Heuvel, longtime editor of The Nation magazine, and Wendy vanden Heuvel, children from his marriage to author/editor Jean Stein, the well-to-do daughter of Jules C...

, a lawyer who served in the U.S. Justice Department under Robert F. Kennedy

Robert F. Kennedy

Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F...

, and who later also became a diplomat and author. Since 1984, he has been the chairman of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute.

Jean Stein and William vanden Heuvel's first daughter, Katrina vanden Heuvel

Katrina vanden Heuvel

Katrina vanden Heuvel is the editor, publisher, and part-owner of the magazine The Nation. She has been the magazine's editor since 1995. She is a frequent guest on numerous television programs...

, was born in 1959; she is now the editor and publisher of The Nation magazine. The couple's second daughter, Wendy vanden Heuvel, was born in 1961, and she is an actress and producer in New York. She is also on the board of the 52nd Street Project, which matches inner-city youth with professional theater artists to create original dramatic works.

From 1995-2007, Stein was married to Torsten Wiesel

Torsten Wiesel

Torsten Nils Wiesel was a Swedish co-recipient with David H. Hubel of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for their discoveries concerning information processing in the visual system; the prize was shared with Roger W...

, a co-recipient with David H. Hubel

David H. Hubel

David Hunter Hubel is the John Franklin Enders Professor of Neurobiology, Emeritus, at Harvard Medical School. He was co-recipient with Torsten Wiesel of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for their discoveries concerning information processing in the visual system; the prize was...

of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.