Elizabeth Ripley

While many well-regarded authors lead unconventional lives, Elizabeth Ripley takes that idea to a new level. Born and raised in New Haven, Connecticut, she attended Smith College, studying art and French, along with theatrical design and drama. She put her second language to good use as she studied at the Sorbonne during her junior year of college. After graduation, she embarked on a thoroughly adventurous life–continuing to study at the Art Students League of New York, traveling, living in Europe for several years, and working with a variety of theater groups. Eventually, she began compiling and illustrating joke and riddle books for children, the first being published by Oxford University Press in 1940. But then her life took a slightly different turn. She started a successful Christmas card business in 1948, designing and selling them herself. She would set aside one month a year to travel by bus and visit the shops that sold her cards. However, by 1956, she began writing artist biographies for which she is most well-known. Because she could no longer keep up with the business demands while researching and writing about artists, she gave up her business but continued to illustrate cards for the company, Workshop Cards Corporation.  

She submitted her first artist biography, Leonardo da Vinci, to her sister, then juvenile editor at Oxford University Press. It was published to great acclaim, and she proceeded to write sixteen more, publishing about one per year. She traveled extensively through Europe and Asia to personally examine the art she was writing about while immersing herself in the culture of that particular artist. 

Outside of writing, Ms. Ripley engaged in other activities, very different from her deep interest in art. She worked at least one day per week as a nurse’s aid at the New London Hospital, worked with Recordings for the Blind, and finally, made time for her favorite hobby, creating scarecrows for her garden. Her taste in literature included Edward Lear as her favorite author, while biographies and history were unsurprisingly her favorite genres to read.

—Deanna Knoll