Abigail Thomas is the daughter of renowned science writer Lewis Thomas (The Lives of a Cell).

She is the mother of 4 children and the grandmother of 12.

Her academic education stopped when, pregnant with her oldest daughter, she was asked to leave Bryn Mawr during her first year.

She’s lived most of her life on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, and was for a time a book editor and for another time a book agent. Then she started writing for publication.

Her first three books “Getting Over Tom,”^[21] “An Actual Life,”^[18] and “Herb’s Pajamas”^[22] were works of fiction. Her memoir, “A Three Dog Life,” was named one of the best books of 2006 by the Los Angeles Times^[15] and The Washington Post.^[16] It won the 2006 Inspirational Memoir Award given by Books for A Better Life. She is also author of “Safekeeping,”^[19] a memoir, and “Thinking About Memoir.”^{[20] [1]}