Anzia Yezierska was born in Warsaw, Poland. Her father was a prosperous Jewish businessman. After the Russian Revolution in 1917, the family fled to Paris, where Anzia's brothers Albert and Maurice helped found the famous journal "Le Matin" (Morning).
In 1920, her parents moved to New York City and purchased a home on Fifth Avenue at 63rd Street. Anzia attended the exclusive Brearley School, where she developed her love of reading and writing
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After graduating from high school, she attended Barnard College and then transferred to Columbia University for her M.A. degree in English, but did not complete it.
In 1926, Anzia and her mother sailed to England and became lifelong friends with Mrs. Leonard Woolf and Virginia Stephen.
The two young women traveled through Europe together before settling in London, where Anzia wrote short stories about Jewish life in Poland for "The London Mercury". She also became an editor of the "London Mercury", where she worked until 1929.
In 1930, Anzia returned to New York, where she married Harold Yezersky and took up residence on West 4th Street in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan. Shortly after marrying, Harold was invited into a family business venture that failed shortly thereafter.
Her husband died shortly thereafter and left her with their young son Paul who had been born just before their separation.
Anzia's experience with depression led to meetings with Dr. Abram Kardiner's psychoanalytic psychiatrist, who recommended she see Dora Hartshorne at the Psychoanalytic Center for Child Development at Columbia University Medical School . There she began her analysis with Hartshorne which lasted ten years until Kardiner's death in 1950 .
In 1951 she married Dr. Lillian Faderman , a former colleague of Hartshorne's who also studied with Dr. Kardiner at Columbia University Medical School .
They had a daughter Elizabeth Faderman (1952) and a son Eric Faderman (1955). In 1954 they moved from New York City to Carmel Valley California where they lived until Lillian's death from cancer in 1978 when Eric was old enough to move back to New York City for his final year of high school . In 1980 he graduated from Hunter College High School in New York City , which he attended after moving back to New York City from Los Angeles , CA.
Anzia Yezierska
