Elizabeth Mitchell is the author of four nonfiction books: Lincoln's Lie: A True Civil War Caper Through Fake News, Wall Street and the White House (Counterpoint Press/October 2020), Liberty's Torch: The Great Adventure to Build the Statue of Liberty (Grove Atlantic, 2014), Three Strides Before the Wire: The Dark and Beautiful World of Horse Racing (Hyperion, 2002), and W.: Revenge of the Bush Dynasty (Hyperion, 2000). The Washington Post selected Three Strides as one of the best nonfiction books of that year.
Mitchell has authored novella-length nonfiction works, including The Fire Horse (2012); Lady With a Past: A Petulant French Sculptor, His Quest for Immortality, and the Real Story of the Statue of Liberty (2011); and the Amazon nonfiction bestseller, The Fearless Mrs. Goodwin (2011), about the first female detective in the United States.
Mitchell’s freelance writing has appeared in such publications as The Paris Review, TIME, Wall Street Journal, New York, Chicago Tribune, Bookforum, Smithsonian, GQ, O, Glamour, The Nation, Refinery29, and beliefnet.com. She was a contributing editor to Newsweek during the 2000 campaign season. At the New York Daily News, she served as a senior long-form writer.
Her editing work has included Upcycle: Beyond Sustainability – Designing for Abundance (FSG, 2013) by William McDonough and Michael Braungart, foreword by President Bill Clinton. She served as executive editor of Marlo Thomas’ number-one New York Times bestseller The Right Words at the Right Time (Atria Books, May 2002).
She was executive editor of George, having started with the magazine as a senior editor before George’s launch. Prior to that, she worked as features editor at SPIN.
Mitchell has been interviewed on numerous radio and television shows, including “Hardball with Chris Matthews,” “The Charlie Rose Show,” “The O’Reilly Factor,” “Booknotes with Brian Lamb,” the Leonard Lopate show on NPR, and many other CNN, MSNBC, network and local programs. She has delivered lectures on journalism at Harvard University and Fairleigh Dickinson University, among other educational institutions; and historical talks at the National Archives in Washington and the National Archives in New York. She taught nonfiction writing in the Columbia University 2014 summer session.
She is the co-founder of ReadThis, a volunteer group that delivers books where needed, including to troops abroad, children living in poverty, and public schools with no library.
