Young, Robin

PERSONAL:

Female. Education: California State University, B.A.; London School of Economics and Political Science, M.Sc.

ADDRESSES:

Agent—c/o Author Mail, Thunder's Mouth Press, 245 W. 17th St., 11th Fl., New York, NY 10011-5300. E-mail—author@sullivanballou.info.

CAREER:

Writer and historian. California State University at Long Beach, Long Beach, CA, lecturer, for ten years; Chapman College, Orange, CA, lecturer;Los Angeles Police Department Academy, Los Angeles, CA, instructor; mayor and councilwoman, LaHabra, CA, for eight years. Children' Museum, founder. American Civil War Society, board member; Breast Health Center at Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital, community advisory board; KCET public television, community advisory board.

WRITINGS:

Time's Disinherited Children: Childhood, Regression, and, Sacrifice in the Plays of Henrik Ibsen, Norvik Press (Norwich, England), 1989.

For Love & Liberty: The Untold Civil War Story of Major Sullivan Ballou & His Famous Love Letter,Thunder's Mouth Press (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals, including the New York Times.

SIDELIGHTS:

In 1976 Robin Young was the youngest mayor in the United States. After her two terms as mayor in LaHabra, a small city near Los Angeles, Young moved on to a twenty-five year career in teaching at Califoria State University, Chapman College, and the Los Angeles Police Department Academy. Young also serves on the board of several organizations, including the American Civil War Society, Breast Health Center at Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital, and the Children's Museum, which she founded as the first of its kind west of the Mississippi River.

In 2006 Young published For Love & Liberty: The Untold Civil War Story of Major Sullivan Ballou & His Famous Love Letter. This book tells the life events of a Rhode Island officer during the Civil War, Major Sullivan Ballou. Using diaries, letters, speeches, and military reports, Young recreates the times of Ballou in an attempt to explain his famous love letter. Margaret Flanagan, writing in Booklist, called Young's effort a "heartfelt biography" that "will appeal to both scholars and casual readers." A reviewer in Publishers Weekly, however, noted that "there simply isn't enough information about the Ballous to sustain an 800-plus-page book." A critic writing for the Kirkus Reviewsconcluded that For Love & Liberty is "an emotionally focused tale enriched by a remarkable level of detail."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, January 1, 2006, Margaret Flanagan, review of For Love & Liberty: The Untold Civil War Story of Major Sullivan Ballou & His Famous Love Letter, p. 51.

Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2005, review of For Love & Liberty, p. 1316.

Library Journal, January 1, 2006, Randall M. Miller, review of For Love & Liberty, p. 135.

Publishers Weekly, December 12, 2005, review of For Love & Liberty, p. 55.

ONLINE

Sullivan Ballou Web site,http://www.sullivanballou.info/(July 17, 2006), author biography.