Eloise Roorbach (April 17, 1868 – February 16, 1961) was an American artist, writer, editor, and critic.

Early life and education

Eloise Jenkins was born in Lincoln, Illinois, daughter of John Jenkins (who was a judge) and Minnie Spencer Eads Jenkins. She taught drawing locally as a young woman, then studied art in New York City, where she met and married one of the instructors, landscape painter George S. Roorbach, in 1889. They moved to San Francisco together and built a redwood

bungalow A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is either single-story or has a second story built into a sloping roof (usually with dormer windows), and may be surrounded by wide verandas. The first house in England that was classified as a b ...

Brookdale Brookdale is the name of many settlements, institutions, and businesses in English-speaking countries. Cities and towns * Brookdale, California, an unincorporated town in Santa Cruz County * Brookdale, Kansas * Brookdale, Manitoba, an unincorporat ...

, in the

Santa Cruz Mountains The Santa Cruz Mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are a mountain range in central and Northern California, United States. They form a ridge down the San Francisco Peninsula, south of San Francisco. They separate the Pacific Ocean from ...

Career

Eloise Roorbach published travel essays about California, usually writing about a trip through the wilderness or along the coast, sometimes with her own illustrations. "The most desirable place in the world is, generally, that enchanted spot just a little beyond the foot of ground we happen to be in," she declared of her pleasure in exploring her adopted state. Roorbach left her husband in 1910 and relocated back to New York City, where she worked as an editor at '' Craftsman Magazine'', writing mainly (but not exclusively) about garden topics. She earned a reputation as a critic of California architecture, with articles about architect Irving Gill, and the

California Mission The Spanish missions in California ( es, Misiones españolas en California) comprise a series of 21 religious outposts or missions established between 1769 and 1833 in what is now the U.S. state of California. Founded by Catholic priests o ...

style.

Personal life

Both Eloise and George Roorbach were involved with

Swami Vivekananda Swami Vivekananda (; ; 12 January 1863 – 4 July 1902), born Narendranath Datta (), was an Indian Hindu monk, philosopher, author, religious teacher, and the chief disciple of the Indian mystic Ramakrishna. He was a key figure in the intro ...

and Vedanta Society in the Bay Area, and for a short time Eloise was leader of the Alameda House of Truth. The Roorbachs divorced in 1912,"Artistic Souls Unhappily Wed; Eloise Roorbach Says George Roorbach is Good Painter, but Poor Mate," ''San Francisco Chronicle'' (August 9, 1912): 16.
via Newspapers.com and George remarried in 1913. Eloise Roorbach died in 1961, age 92.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roorbach, Eloise 1868 births 1961 deaths People from Lincoln, Illinois Writers from New York City People from Santa Cruz County, California 19th-century American women writers American print editors 19th-century American writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers Women print editors 20th-century American women writers American architecture critics American women critics American women editors American women non-fiction writers