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Dorothy Sterling was born in New York, New York on November 23, 1913, daughter of Elsie Darmstadter Dannenberg and Joseph Dannenberg. She was educated at Wellesley College and Barnard College, graduating from Barnard with a B.A. in 1934. She married Philip Sterling (also a writer) on May 14, 1937. They have two children, Peter and Anne.

Dorothy Sterling's fiction books for children are typically mysteries, such as The Brownie Scout Mystery (1955), The Silver Spoon Mystery (1958), Secret of the Old Post-Box (1960) and The Cub Scout Mystery (1952). Her non-fiction books fall into two categoris: science and nature, such as Trees and Their Story (1953), Insects and the Homes They Build (1954), and The Story of Mosses, Ferns, and Mushrooms [1955]); and civil rights, such as It Started in Montgomery: A Picure History of the Civil Rights Movement (1972), Freedom Train: The Story of Harriet Tubman (1954), Tear Down the Walls!: A History of the American Civil Rights Movement (1968). Mary Jane (1959), is a best-selling young adult novel about a twelve-year-old black girl who was among the first students to integrate a junior high school in the 1950s.

Dorothy Sterling has won several awards for her writings, including the Carter G. Woodson Book Award from the National Council for the Social Studies for The Trouble They Seen: Black People Tell the Story of Reconstruction (1976)

Dorothy Sterling died December 1, 2008 in Wellfleet, MA.

Source: Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2003.