Elizabeth Gray Potter

Elizabeth Gray Potter was an American author known for writing about San Francisco and its history. She co-wrote The Lure of San Francisco: A Romance Amid Old Landmarks, published in 1915, and later wrote The San Francisco Skyline, published in 1939.

A brief note in California Historical Society Quarterly says she was the granddaughter of Nathaniel Gray, founder of the San Francisco firm N. Gray & Co., and that she served for many years as librarian at Mills College. Those details help explain the strong local knowledge and historical interest that run through her writing.

Potter’s books are especially appealing for readers who enjoy place-centered nonfiction and early twentieth-century views of California. Rather than treating San Francisco as just a backdrop, she wrote about it as a city full of memory, character, and lived history.