Primates of Park Avenue (Martin) - Author Bio

Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
• Education—B.S., University of Michigan; Ph.D., Yale University
• Currently—lives in New York City, New York


Wendy "Wednesday" Martin is an American author, blogger, and commentator on parenting, step-parenting, and popular culture. She has written for Psychology Today, New York Post, Daily Telegraph, New York Times, Cosmopolitan, Fitness, Glamour, and Huffington Post. To promote her two books, she has commented on CNN, NPR, BBC radio, Fox News, and Weekend Today.

Background
Martin was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She did her undergraduate work at the University of Michigan where she studied anthropology. She also received a doctorate in comparative literature and cultural studies from Yale University. Her doctoral work examined early psychoanalysis and anthropology.

Martin has taught literature and cultural studies at Yale, The New School, and Baruch College.

Books
Martin is the author of Marlene Dietrich (1995); Stepmonster: A New Look at Why Real Stepmothers Think, Feel and Act the Way We Do (2009), and Primates of Park Avenue (2015).

Primates controversy
Martin moved to the Upper East Side neighborhood of Manhattan with her family in 2004. Inspired by Jane Goodall's work, she began researching her experiences there for Primates of Park Avenue. The memoir documents life among the wealthy, stay-at-home mothers in the area, examining the women's behavior from a social researcher's perspective.

In May, 2015, prior to the release of Primates, Martin published an article in the New York Times detailing the practice of "wife bonuses," which she uncovered in her research for the book. According to Martin, some of the Upper East Side wives receive "bonuses"—in the form of cash payouts—from their husbands as a reward for domestic performance. Subsequent articles in other papers, however, refuted the practice.

Further articles—in the New York Post and Washington Post—also noted discrepancies in the book, prompting Martin's publisher, Simon & Schuster, to point out that altering names, dates, and other details out of concern for privacy is not uncommon in memoir writing. A disclaimer to that effect will be included in future editions of Primates. Martin insists, however, on her work's accuracy: "I stand by what I wrote, absolutely 100 percent."

Personal
Martin is married to Joel Moser, a lawyer, financier, and adjunct professor at Columbia University. The couple has two sons together (born in 2001 and 2007) and two-daughters from Moser's previous marriage. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 9/2/2015.)