Elizabeth Williams Champney

After graduation, she returned to Kansas, to Kansas State Agricultural College in Manhattan, Kansas, where she served as Secretary for the college and the first instructor of drawing at the school.[8] While living in Kansas, she was engaged to be married to a farmer.[5] However, the marriage apparently never took place, and in May 1873, she instead married James Wells Champney – her former drawing instructor – who happened to be traveling through Manhattan, Kansas, as part of a trip through the Louisiana Purchase to illustrate an article entitled The Great South by Edward King for Scribner’s Monthly.[5][9] Her first published piece, a poem, was published six months after her marriage.[5][9]

For three years after their marriage, the couple traveled through the southern United States and Europe before settling on the East Coast. In 1876, the Champneys, returned to the United States,[10] and settled in Deerfield, Massachusetts. Champney began publishing travel fiction in Harper's Magazine.[11] Her short stories were rapidly accepted. In the larger monthlies, both for children and adults, she contributed more than 86 articles, poems, and brief romances.[7] In 1879, the couple acquired an additional home in New York City, where James opened a studio at 96 Fifth Avenue.[12]

In 1880, the couple secured a contract to illustrate a series of articles for Century Magazine. For this endeavour, the pair embarked on travel to North Africa, Spain and Portugal, visiting localities, such as Tangier and Tétouan in Morocco, that not been covered by any of the illustrated magazines of the period. In Europe, they lived with gypsies, and also spent a brief period living with the rebels of Don Carlos. In Spain, they encountered the art of the Spanish realist, Mariano Fortuny and the French painter, Henri Regnault, and spent much of their time following in the artists' footsteps across Spain, France and Morocco.[13] Between 1880 and 1890, the Champneys made several trips to Europe, and in 1890 Champney opened a studio in Paris.[14] Between 1880 and 1890, the Champneys made several trips to Europe, and in 1890 Champney opened a studio in Paris.[14]

The Champneys also continued to make frequent trips to Europe and other foreign locations, including North Africa, which provided material for both of their work, including England, France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, and other well-known and less known portions of Europe. It was near this same period she attempted her first novel, that met with some success, was highly spoken of by critics, but did not achieve for her the accolades she had wished. In 1881, a romance, Rosemary and Rue, appeared, and it was widely admired.[3]

Cover of Champney's Three Vassar Girls Abroad

In 1883, she published the first of her long-running "Three Vassar Girls Abroad" novels for young girls.[15] The "Vassar Girls" series eventually contained eleven novels, the last of which, Three Vassar Girls in the Holy Land, was published in 1892.[15] The books were published by Estes & Lauriat, a publishing house in Boston.

During this time, Champney wrote many additional books, such as Howling Wolf, and his Trick-Pony, designed more especially for boy than girl readers.[7] Among her historical stories for youth is "Great-Grandmother Girls in New France", suggested by the Native American massacre in Deerfield, Massachusetts.[4]

Elizabeth Champney (1890)

The first of her "Witch Winnie" books was published by White and Allen in 1889, entitled Witch Winnie: The Story of a "King's Daughter".[15][16] The subject of the series is not a practitioner of witchcraft, but rather a mischievous young school-girl, and the first book is dedicated to Champney's daughter ("My Little Witch Marie"). The "Witch Winnie" series eventually contained nine books, the last of which, Witch Winnie in Spain, was published in 1898.[15] Dodd, Mead and Company published an edition of the first book in 1891 and was the original publisher of the rest of the series. Later A. L. Chatteron of New York picked up the series as a reprint company.

From 1899, Champney concentrated on more adult books, writing romantic, semi-fictional descriptions and stories of foreign locations, beginning with The Romance of the Feudal Chäteaux. From Portugal, she wrote a collection of magazine articles, and with her artist husband, she traveled into Africa, following “in the footsteps of Fortuny and Regnault,” which experiences were detailed in the Century.[7] She ultimately wrote nine books in this "Romance" series, the last of which, The Romance of Russia, from Rurik to Bolshevik, was published in 1921, one year before her death in 1922.[15] The books in this series were published by G. P. Putnam's Sons. In addition to her three main series of books, Champney also had several other books published.

• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Colby, F.; Williams, T. (1914). "Champney, James Wells". In Colby, F.; Williams, T. (eds.). New International Encyclopedia. Vol. 5 (2nd ed.). Dodd, Mead.
• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Holloway, Laura Carter (1889). The Woman's Story: As Told by Twenty American Women (Public domain ed.). Hurst.
• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Illustrated American Publishing Company (1890). The Illustrated American. Vol. 5 (Public domain ed.). Illustrated American Publishing Company.
• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Walters, John Daniel (1909). History of the Kansas State Agricultural College (Public domain ed.). Printing Department of the Kansas state agricultural college. p. 220.
• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice (1893). A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life (Public domain ed.). Moulton. ISBN 9780722217139.