Born about 1889, Elizabeth Seeger was a well-known author of books for young people on Eastern history and religion. As a teacher of history and literature at the Dalton School in New York City, she introduced a year of Oriental Studies into the curriculum in the early 1920s. To supplement the inadequate reference material, she wrote a sketch on Chinese history for twelveyear-olds, and later expanded it into Pageant of Chinese History. The book was selected as an honor book for the John Newbery Medal in 1935. In 1947, she revised and updated it with a chapter on the fall of the empire and the rise of the Republic of China. This book was followed by Pageant of Russian History, which traces the history of Russia up to the Revolution.

Following her teaching career, Seeger continued to write at her home in Bridgewater, Connecticut. She turned her...