Elizabeth Rider Montgomery papers, 1953-1969

A teacher and prolific writer specializing in works for children and young adults, Elizabeth Rider was born to Charles Quantrell and Lula (Tralle) Rider on July 12, 1902, in Huaras, Peru, where her father was serving as a missionary and teacher. The family returned to the United States when Elizabeth was 18 months old and she spent her childhood in Independence, Missouri, and Seattle, Washington. Although intending to be an artist, she trained as a teacher, receiving a two-year certificate from the Washington State Normal School at Bellingham (now Western Washington University) in 1925 and a degree in Education from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1928.

While employed as an elementary school teacher, Mrs. Montgomery began writing, with the intention of improving the reading primers then available for her young pupils. She "was horrified at available reading books" for students. She wrote the first book of the "We Look and See" series long before it was accepted in 1940. In 1938, she left the teaching profession and, until 1963, was employed as a staff-writer for the text-book publisher Scott, Foresman & Company. While there, she was closely involved in the creation and development of the pre-primers and health texts featuring the ongoing characters named "Dick" and "Jane." Subsequently, she was a free-lance writer, authoring novels, biographies, stories, plays, and poems for children and young adults, as well as magazine articles, novels, and plays for adults.

Spanning more than 40 years and resulting in over 70 works, Elizabeth Rider Montgomery's distinguished career was recognized by many honors, including awards from the National Federation of Press Women, National League of American Pen Women, Phi Delta Nu Honorary Fraternity of Authors and Creative Artists, Pacific Northwest Writers Conference, Washington Press Women, and the Seattle Historical Society. She was also a past president of the Seattle Free Lancers. Her body of work includes biographies on Chief Seattle, Henry Ford and Dag Hamarskjold, as well as several Northwest adventure novels. Married to Norman A. Montgomery from 1930 to 1961, and to Arthur Julesberg from 1963, Elizabeth Rider Montgomery died on February 19, 1985, in Seattle, Washington.