Elsie Vanderbilt Aidinoff published her first novel at the age of 73. Critically acclaimed, THE GARDEN (HarperCollins Tempest, 2004) is a young adult novel that retells the story of Adam and Eve from Eve's point of view. 

Elsie is a graduate of Smith College and Columbia University and has lived in Paris, Brussels, Hong Kong, London and New York.  She has been involved in education most of her life, starting in 1965 as a tutor in a junior high school with the New York City School Volunteer Program (now Learning Leaders).  Since 1980, she has worked at the Children’s Storefront School, a tuition-free independent school in Harlem, as a teacher, administrator, and trustee. 

The mother of four grown children, she lives in New York City with her husband, a lawyer.