Elizabeth Grinnell

Born Sarah Elizabeth Pratt in Maine in 1851, she became an American writer, naturalist, and clubwoman who was closely associated with Pasadena, California. She is remembered for writing about birds and the natural world for a broad audience, and for the way she connected close observation with an inviting, readable style.

Grinnell wrote books including The Story of Gabriel's Horn, Birds of Song and Story, and The Damn-Bird. Sources also describe her as active in civic and reform-minded organizations, including work connected with women’s clubs and Native rights advocacy, alongside her interest in bird protection.

She died in 1935. Today, she is often noted both for her own writing and for her place in an early California culture of natural history, especially the kind that encouraged ordinary readers to pay closer attention to the birds around them.