author
Elisabeth Woodbridge Morris
1870–1964
Best known for The Jonathan Papers, this American writer brought humor, sharp observation, and a deep feel for everyday life to her essays and fiction. Her work moves easily between literary craft and the textures of family, place, and rural experience.
2 Audiobooks
More Jonathan Papers
by Elisabeth Woodbridge Morris
The Jonathan Papers
by Elisabeth Woodbridge Morris
About the author
Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1870, Elisabeth Woodbridge Morris studied at Packer Collegiate Institute, earned her A.B. from Vassar College in 1892, and went on to receive a Ph.D. from Yale. She published across several genres, including literary instruction, essays, and fiction, and became especially associated with thoughtful, readable writing about ordinary life.
She married Charles Gould Morris in 1899, and sources describe the couple as having five children. While managing family life, she continued to write steadily. Her best-known book, The Jonathan Papers (1912), helped build her reputation, and other works include The Drama; Its Laws and Its Technique and Isaiah Incorporated.
Morris died in 1964. What still makes her appealing is the way her writing combines intelligence with warmth: she could be witty and observant without ever feeling distant, and her books still offer a lively glimpse of American literary and domestic life in the early twentieth century.