Elizabeth W. Champney

Elizabeth Williams Champney (1850–1922) was an American writer of travel books, juvenile fiction and popular history. Born in Springfield, Ohio, she was among the first graduates of Vassar College and married the painter James Wells Champney, with whom she traveled widely in Europe, North Africa and the Americas. Her series Three Vassar Girls Abroad followed young American women through foreign countries, and in later life she wrote a series of romantic histories, among them Romance of the French Châteaux, Romance of the Italian Villas and Romance of Roman Villas, mixing history, legend and invented episodes.