She earned a bachelor's degree from Hunter College and a master's in library science from Columbia University.

[3][4] Sachs began focusing on her writing during a leave of absence from her library job in 1954.

[4] Unable to sell her first novel, Amy Moves In, she set it aside and moved with her husband and children to San Francisco, California in 1961, taking a job at the Main Library.

[4] By 1968, she had made enough money from her first four published novels to quit her librarian job and become a full-time writer.

[4] Sachs continued her activism later in life, fighting for public school integration and demonstrating against the Vietnam War.