Joanne Greenberg was born in 1932, and her semi-autobiographical novel I Never Promised You a Rose Garden addresses Greenberg’s own experiences of antisemitism, depression, creativity, and a thirst for life against all odds. The novel takes place just after World War II (WWII). The protagonist, Deborah, is largely shaped by both the war itself and the post-war era, as well as the antisemitism that was rampant during these periods, and the immigrant history of her family.

Greenberg was born to immigrant parents during the Great Depression in Brooklyn, New York. Her life was shaped by this history, by her place as a Jewish American, and by the resulting mental-emotional chaos that led to the writing of her most famous novel. She lived through harrowing times, her own personal tragedies, and adopted many different career paths during her life. She entered a mental health facility at age 16 and was the youngest patient ever to have been admitted. Greenberg was released for the last time in 1951. She has written 42 books, and, at age 90, published a memoir. As I Never Promised You a Rose Garden’s conclusion suggests Deborah may tutor, Greenberg also became a tutor of Hebrew and Latin.