Eleanor Lewis

Born in 1882, Eleanor Frances Lewis became closely connected with Northwestern University Library, where records of her papers show that much of her surviving material relates to her retirement in 1948. Those papers also describe a wide range of work beyond her library career, including articles, bibliographies, speeches, and memoir writing.

Her best-known book appears to be Beads of Jade (1958), described in archival records as a memoir of her childhood in China. The same collection notes that her writing also included college reminiscences, library-related pieces, and other historical and literary work, suggesting a writer who moved easily between personal memory and public history.

Lewis died in 1961. While detailed biographical information is limited in the sources available here, the archival record leaves a clear impression of an active literary life built around scholarship, recollection, and a lasting connection to books.