Elizabeth Williams Champney

Elizabeth Lizzie Williams Champney was an American author of numerous articles and novels, most of which focused on foreign locations. Her novels were originally directed mainly at young girls, including the Witch Winnie series and the Vassar Girls Abroad series, but she later wrote romantic semifictional fables of castles, such as The Romance of the Feudal Chteaux . She was the wife of artist James Wells Champney.

Champney was born Elizabeth Johnson Williams in Springfield, Ohio, on February 6, 1850. Her parents, who were abolitionists, moved the family to Kansas Territory in her youth, to join the fight against the spread of slavery to Kansas. After the Civil War, she attended the Seminary for Young Ladies in Lexington, Massachusetts, where the artist James Wells Champney was her drawing instructor. She completed her education at Vassar College, where she received her A.B. in 1869, a member of the second class of Vassar graduates.

Source: Wikipedia