Jane Howard

Jane Temple Howard (May 4, 1935–June 27, 1996) was an American journalist, author, and educator. She worked at Life magazine from 1956 to 1972. She contributed articles to many publications and wrote several books; most well-known was her biography of Margaret Mead.

Biography Family Howard was born in Springfield, Sangamon County, Illinois, but raised in Winnetka. Her father, Robert Pickrell Howard, (1905-1989) was a historian, a political newsreporter and correspondent for the Chicago Tribune for nearly three decades. Her mother, Eleanor, died in 1971, when Jane was in her mid-thirties; her father remarried later, to Elizabeth Thomas (Appel). She had one sister, Ann and one brother, Henry.

In her 1978 book, "Families," she wrote: Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.

Education Howard attended the University of Michigan, graduating in 1956, with her bachelor's degree. She was awarded two honorary degrees, a Doctor of Letters from Grinnell College in 1979 and a Doctor of Humane Letters, from Hamline University in 1984.

Books Please Touch: a guided tour of the human potential movement, McGraw-Hill, 1st ed.,1970, A Different Woman, 1st ed., Dutton, 1973, Families, Transaction Publications, 1998, ©1978, Margaret Mead: a life, Fawcet Crest, 1985, At the time of her death, Howard was writing a book under the working title Heartland.