Born in Burlington, Iowa, on May 16, 1900, Elswyth Thane (nee Helen Ricker) spent most of her life on the East coast. She always wanted to write and had her first novel published in 1926. When she was a child, her family spent many summers in England and for many years her writing was dominated by an English scene. Thane specialized in biography and historical fiction. The Tudor Wench, her biography of Queen Elizabeth I, later became a play. She also authored a play titled,Young Mr. Disaeli.

When World War II broke out and she was no longer able to stay in England to do the extensive research required for her writing, her novels began drawing on American history. The first of her "Williamsburg novels" was published in 1943. She also wrote biographies of George and Martha Washington. Elswyth Thane (who was the widow of naturalist and explorer, William Beebe) died in 1984, at the age of eighty-four.