The Mighty Quindlen

Back when she was still an aspiring young reporter, Anna Quindlen said she would never have a family. She was going to make it in a rough, male-dominated business, and there was just no room for kids in the battle plan. Three kids, three successive New York Times columns, and a terrific first novel later, Quindlen appears to have had second thoughts. Though she tried to quit the old Gray Lady at least twice, the boys at the top (especially her mentor, Abe Rosenthal) just couldn't let her go. "How about if you write a column about your life in Hoboken, Anna?" they asked the first time. So she left "About New York" and in 1986 started her timely "Life in the 30's" series. Then came "How about if we give you a spot on the op-ed page?" And she became the third woman to write a regular op-ed column. In between, Quindlen found time to write Object Lessons (Random House)—a moving story about a suburban Catholic family breaking up and coming together again during one long, hot summer in the late sixties. So how did she make it so far so fast? "I'm really average," Quindlen says with a shrug.