Marcia Obrasky Levin
Marcia Obrasky Levin was an American author and educator born on October 29, 1918, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She received her teaching certificate in 1939 and worked as an elementary school teacher in various schools in Philadelphia. Levin was married to Martin P. Levin, who held a key position at the Times Mirror Company, and together they had three children, one of whom later became involved in publishing her work. She wrote under her married name, as well as pseudonyms including Marcia Martin and Jeremy Martin, the latter used for collaborative nonfiction aimed at young men preparing for the military draft.
Levin is best known for the "Donna Parker" series, which consisted of seven young adult novels featuring a teenage girl navigating everyday mysteries, a notable departure from more sensational narratives typical of the genre at the time. Her books were published by Whitman, a division of Random House, and showcased a blend of relatable themes and moral lessons. In addition to her fiction work, Levin collaborated on mathematics textbooks and adapted classic literature for younger audiences. She passed away on April 18, 2006, in Sarasota, Florida, leaving behind a rich literary legacy and a large family, including grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
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Marcia Obrasky Levin
Writer
- Born: October 29, 1918
- Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Died: April 18, 2006
- Place of death: Siesta Key, Sarasota, Florida
Biography
Marcia Obrasky Levin was born Marcia Lauter Obrasky on October 29, 1918, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and grew up in western part of the city. Her father, Abraham Obrasky, was a dentist, and her mother was Elizabeth Lauter Obrasky. She married Martin P. Levin on April 2, 1939; Martin later was president of the Times Mirror Company book group from 1966 to 1983. The couple had three children, Jeremy, Wendy, and Hugh; Hugh later became president of Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, a publishing company that published some of his mother’s work.
Levin received her teaching certificate from Philadelphia Normal School in 1939. She also took classes at Temple University in Philadelphia from 1939 to 1940 and in 1949, and she attended Indiana University from 1941 to 1943. She was an elementary school teacher in Philadelphia from 1939 to 1940 and later at the Beth Jacob School in Philadelphia in 1945, and she taught remedial subjects from 1947 to 1950.
Levin wrote under her married name, Marcia Obrasky Levin, as well as the pseudonyms Marcia Martin, a combination of her first name and her husband’s first name. Under the joint pseudonym Jeremy Martin, she and her husband wrote two nonfiction books instructing young men how to prepare for the military draft. Collaborating with Jeanne Bendick, Levin authored four mathematics textbooks.
As Marcia Martin, she wrote the Donna Parker series of seven young adult novels about a teenage girl and the text for illustrated adaptations of Black Beauty: The Autobiography of a Horse (1877), Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland(1865), and Peter Pan: Or, The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up (1928), among other books. The Donna Parker books, published by Whitman, a division of Random House, were noted for their fast-paced narrative and moral tone. Donna’s life and adventures were more ordinary than Nancy Drew’s and involved mysteries of a more mundane nature, such as missing money or the cause of a fire. In Donna Parker: A Spring to Remember, her best friend’s mother dies, an unusual event for a young adult book published for girls in 1960. In the first book, Donna Parker at Cherrydale, Donna has just finished the eighth grade and in the last book, Donna Parker Takes a Giant Step, she is in the tenth grade, although the books were published over a period of seven years. Donna and her family live in Summerfield, a town in the Northeast United States.
Levin and her family settled in Rye, New York, in 1950. She died after a long illness on April 18, 2006, in a hospital near her winter home on Siesta Key in Sarasota, Florida. She and her husband had nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren at the time of her death.