Jean Strouse is an American biographer, cultural administrator, and critic, best known for her in-depth biographies of Alice James and J. Pierpont Morgan. A Radcliffe College graduate (1967), she began her career as an editorial assistant at The New York Review of Books from 1967 to 1969. Her acclaimed book Alice James: A Biography (1980) won the Bancroft Prize, and her later work, Morgan: American Financier (1999), offered a detailed portrait of the influential banker. Strouse has also contributed to major publications and served as director of the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library.