Born in Chicago in 1887, Elma Ehrlich Levinger worked her way through the University of Chicago, quite an accomplishment for a woman of her time. Later she was awarded a fellowship to study drama at Radcliffe College, and she wrote a number of plays, several of which won prizes in national contests.

One of the best known is the biblical drama in one act, Jephthah's Daughter (1921). She also wrote short stories and two adult novels before turning to biography for young people. She was married to Lee Joseph Levinger. She died in 1958.