Robin R. Cutler

Robin Cutler’s early life was split between Manhattan and a farm near a tiny town in rural Virginia called Casanova. An only child, she never felt like one because of the menagerie collected by her mother, Jane Hall, a former screenwriter at MGM, who had the best years of her life before Robin was born. But that’s another story-- told in Such Mad Fun (2016). Robin’s siblings included a rescued ocelot, multiple German Shepherds, farm cats, snooty cats, and a screech owl (Sidney), who could not fly but traveled on Eastern Airlines in a modified Nantucket basket. In his salad days, her dad, Robert F. Cutler, founded and managed the popular Suffern County Theater. Also before she was born.

Robin decided she wanted to be a historian in the ninth grade. She grew up in a world without any modern digital devices and was happiest in the stacks of various libraries. Her love of books led her to earning a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University. But most of her future career would be as a public historian. Highlights have included working for the National Endowment for Humanities when author Lynne Cheney was chairman, co-producing an Emmy-nominated dramatic series for PBS, working with several Native American tribes to chronicle their histories and culture on film and video, publishing three nonfiction books, two of which took way too long to research; these are featured on her website.

After many years in New York City and Washington, D.C., Robin now lives and works in California near her daughters and grandsons. In addition to research, writing, and volunteering, she supports the Sierra Club, Humane World for Animals, the Oakland Public Library, PBS/KQED and organizations devoted to preserving democracy. She's a member of the Authors Guild, ALLi, Phi Beta Kappa and the Organization of American Historians.

For a more traditional bio with links, blog posts, reviews and lots of photos in the galleries for Such Mad Fun and the second edition of A Soul on Trial, see her Journeys through History blog by searching for Robin R Cutler. Enjoy!

Facebook/Meta: Such Mad Fun page

X: @NYCRobin