OWENS, Carole (Ehrlich) 1942-

PERSONAL: Born December 7, 1942, in Minneapolis, MN; daughter of Jerome D. (a psychologist) and Amy Ann (an education specialist; maiden name, Scott) Schein; children: Todd Frederick, Joseph Eric. Education: University of Maryland—College Park, B.A., 1970; Catholic University of America, M.A., 1977; Yeshiva University, Ph.D., 1987.

ADDRESSES: Home and office—P.O. Box 1207, Stockbridge, MA 01262.

CAREER: Youth leader and advocate for Montgomery County Recreation Department, 1970-72; Family Service, Rockville, MD, counselor and supervisor of preadjudication diversion program of Crisis Home Program, 1972-74; Karma House (residential drug treatment center), Rockville, administrator, 1974-75; Jewish Social Service Agency, Rockville, program development director, 1975-77; United Jewish Appeal Federation of Montgomery County, Bethesda, MD, program development director, 1977-79; licensed clinician in private practice. Catholic University of America, instructor; Cooper-Hewitt Museum, lecturer; teacher in adult education programs. Narrator and consultant for television programs, including Chronicles, Public Broadcasting Service; America's Castles, Arts and Entertainment; City Confidential, Arts and Entertainment; Wealth and Power, Home and Garden Television.

MEMBER: International Society for Political Psychology, American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (clinical member), New York Academy of Sciences.

WRITINGS:

The Berkshire Cottages: A Vanishing Era, Cottage Press (Stockbridge, MA), 1984.

Bellefontaine: Historical Narrative, Canyon Ranch (Lenox, MA), 1989.

Who Killed Carrie Knox?, Berkshire Web (Pittsfield, MA), 1992.

The Lost Days of Agatha Christie (mystery), Cottage Press (Stockbridge, MA) 1995.

Contributor to education journals and popular magazines, including Parade, Ladies' Home Journal, Boston Globe, Victoria, Country Inns, and New England Travel and Life.

SIDELIGHTS: Carole Owens once told CA: "My writing is concerned alternately with the problems of today and the lifestyles of yesterday. I was prompted to write The Berkshire Cottages: A Vanishing Era because of my interest in the 'romantic' Victorian era and its serious effect on all of us today. I believe that instead of being removed from our twentieth century, the Victorian era, indeed, 'invented' it. How is that true? During the Gilded Age in America, scientific thought eclipsed romantic thought and has since dominated American higher education, dictated research methods, and has thereby defined 'truth.' Secondly, mass production and mass consumption patterns 'invented' by our Victorian ancestors have formed and enhanced our daily life-style, affected our economic aspirations, and caused most of the modern problems of pollution and energy and resource shortages.

"My approach to Berkshire Cottages might have been from an architectural, economic, or historical perspective, but in fact it was from the perspective of a social historian. It is people—how they thought, lived, treated one another, and dreamed—that interest me as a family therapist and as a writer. The doors of the Berkshire Cottages were the portals into the lives of our ancestors."