Anna Eustacia Cutler

Anna 'Eustacia' Cutler (Purves)

A talented playwright, author, actress and mother of four, Eustacia Cutler is a graduate of Harvard University with a degree in English literature. Her daughter, Temple Grandin, is Associate Professor of Animal Science, Colorado State University, and author of Animals in Translation.

Cutler is the author of A Thorn in My Pocket, her story of raising her daughter Temple in the conservative, Leave-it-to-Beaver world of the fifties, a time when children with autism were routinely diagnosed as infant schizophrenics and banished to institutions.

She tells of her fight to keep Temple in the mainstream of family, community, and school life, how Temple responded and went on to succeed, as Ms. Cutler puts it, beyond my wildest dreams. Ms. Cutler also explores the nature of the autism disorder as doctors understand it today, and how its predominant characteristics reflect our own traits in an exaggerated form.

Her latest book, released in 2022, is Autism and Us: Old As Time - A Social History of Autism

Additional Sources:

• A Day with the great Eustacia Cutler!
• A COMPLICATED ROAD by Eustacia Purves Cutler, Harvard University Class of 1944
• Eustacia Cutler (Mother of Dr. Temple Grandin): What was the Worst Moment? - Autism Live, Video