Writing Career
In 1876, Elizabeth and James Wells Champney returned to the United States and settled in Deerfield, Massachusetts. In addition to their house in Deerfield, the couple also acquired a home in New York City in 1879, where James Wells Champney opened a fashionable studio at 96 Fifth Avenue. Elizabeth and James Wells Champney also continued to make frequent trips to Europe and other foreign locations, including North Africa, which provided material for both of their work.
Upon her return to the U.S. in 1876, Elizabeth began publishing travel fiction in Harper's Magazine. In 1883, she published the first of her long-running "Three Vassar Girls Abroad" novels for young girls. The "Vassar Girls" series eventually contained eleven novels, the last of which, Three Vassar Girls in the Holy Land, was published in 1892. The books were published by Estes & Lauriat, a publishing house in Boston.
Champney published the first of her "Witch Winnie" books in 1889, entitled Witch Winnie: The Story of a "King's Daughter". 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. The first book in the series was published by Oliphant, Anderson and Ferrier, and the remainder by Dodd, Mead and 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. 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. 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.
Her husband James Wells Champney died in an elevator accident in New York City in 1903, after which Elizabeth moved to the West Coast, where she lived near her son Edouard until her death. The last of her "Romance" books were co-written with her son.
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