Dorothy Erskine, Graceful Crusader for Our Environment by Sonoma author Janet B. Thiessen is the fascinating story of a remarkable San Francisco woman whose influence on the manmade and natural environment of the Bay Area she loved is felt to this day. Her life story will inspire a new generation of environmental advocates with her soft-spoken determination and enthusiasm, and will fortify them to face the accelerating challenges ahead. What a valuable, well-written, well-designed, even inspiring book. --Malcolm Margolin, Publisher, Heyday Books Thiessen has done a fine job of capturing the spirit of her subject, as well as providing context for her many campaigns. The first part of the book concerns Dorothy Ward s youth and family, along with her intellectual formation under the influence of her doctor mother, Progressives like Alice Griffith, and the leftward shift of the New Deal era. Drawn from letters and diaries, this segment greatly enriches our picture of this brilliant, public-spirited woman. --Professor Dick Walker, Greenbelt Alliance Fall 2010 newsletter The Bay Area has no shortage of environmental heroes, but beyond a few big characters known by thousands-John Muir or David Brower-our local heroes tend to live on mostly in the memories of friends and colleagues, and perhaps on a plaque here and there. Janet Thiessen has done her part to be sure Dorothy Erskine finds a different fate. Today, Erskine is best known for her role in the founding of People for Open Space, which eventually became the Greenbelt Alliance. But that was more capstone to a long career than the sum of it. --Dan Rademacher, BayNature magazine, Oct-Nov. 2010 Author Janet B. Thiessen is a native Californian, educated at the University of California. She left the state in 1968 to live in East Tennessee, where the land use issues concerned strip mining and nuclear power. There she wrote newspaper articles, poetry, short stories and plays. Returning to California in 1983, she soon heard about Dorothy Erskine, but it was not until she was tempted with Erskine's personal papers that she succumbed to the challenge of writing this biography.