Elisabeth Elliot Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Religious Books

Elisabeth Elliot
Elisabeth Elliot was a Christian speaker and author and was born in Brussels, Belgium on December 21, 1926. Her parents were missionaries in Belgium where she was born. When she was a few months old, they came over to America and lived in Germantown, which isn’t too far from Philadelphia, where her dad became one of the editors of the Sunday School Times.

Elisabeth’s family continued to live in the city of Philadelphia before moving to New Jersey until she left home in order to attend Wheaton College. By this point, the family had increased to include a sister and four brothers. Two of her brothers (Thomas Howard and David Howard) are authors as well. She studied classical Greek which would later enable her to work in the field of unwritten languages in order to develop one form of writing.

Before her first marriage, Elisabeth took a post-grad year of specialized studies at Prairie Bible Institute in Alberta, Canada, where one campus prayer chapel was named in her honor.

One year after Elisabeth went to Ecuador, Jim Elliot, whom she met while attending Wheaton also entered tribal areas with the Quichua Indians. The couple was married in 1953 in the city of Quito and continued working with each other. On February 27, 1955, they had a daughter named Valerie.

Jim always hoped to have the chance to go into the territory of an unreached tribe. The Aucas were in this category, a fierce group that nobody had succeeded in meeting without getting killed. After finding out where they were, Jim and some other missionaries entered into the Auca territory. After one friendly contact with three members of the Auca tribe, they were all speared to death.

Jim and Elisabeth’s daughter, Valerie, was only ten months old when Jim was killed in 1956. She continued working with the Quichua Indians, and through a remarkable coincidence, met a couple of Auca women that lived with her for a year. They were the key in her going to live with the tribe that killed the five missionaries.

Elisabeth stayed there for two years. One woman, named Dayuma, taught Elisabeth and Rachel Saint (a fellow missionary) the Huao language. When Dayuma went back to the Huaoroni, she made an opening for contact by these missionaries. Starting in October of 1958

She was given, by the Auca/Huaorani, the tribal name of Gikari, which Huao for “Woodpecker”. After this, she went back to the Quicha work and stayed there until the year 1963 when she and Valerie came back to America (Franconia, New Hampshire).

After that, her life was made up of speaking and writing. It included, in the year 1969, a marriage to Addison Leitch, professor of theology at Gordon Conwell Seminary in Massachusetts. He died in the year 1973. After Addison’s death, she had two lodgers in her home. One, named Lars Gren, who she married in the year 1977 and the other married Valerie. Lars was a hospital chaplain that later worked and traveled around together.

She became adjunct professor on the faculty of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in the fall of 1974 and for multiple years she taught a popular course called “Christian Expression”.

During the mid-seventies she served as a stylistic consultant for the committee of the New International Version of the Bible (NIV).

Elliot was appointed writer-in-residence at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts in the year 1981.

She hosted a daily radio show called Gateway to Joy from 1988 until 2001, which was produced by the Good News Broadcasting Association of Lincoln, Nebraska. Almost always, she opened the program by telling her listeners they were loved with an everlasting love and underneath are everlasting arms.’ Today re-runs of the show can be listened to over the Bible Broadcasting Network.

Over the years, she and her husband Lars quit traveling, however still kept in touch with the public through their website and through email.

“Through Gates of Splendor” was the inspiration for the 2006 hit movie “End of the Spear”.

She died on June 14, 2015 at the age of 88 in Magnolia, Massachusetts. She was survived by her third husband (Lars), her daughter (Valerie), and her son-in-law (Walter), and eight grandkids.

“These Strange Ashes” is a non-fiction book and was released in the year 1979. During her first year as a missionary to a tiny group of native women out in the Ecuadorian jungle, Elisabeth Elliot confronted both spiritual and physical trials. In this book, Elisabeth captures the stark realities and mysteries that surround the primitive and colorful world that she ministered.

More than just a simple recounting of her early days, this is a wonderfully crafted and deeply personal reflection on the important questions of life as well as a remarkable testimony to one authentic Christian commitment.

“Through Gates of Splendor” is a non-fiction book and was released in the year 1981. In the year 1956, five young guys, including Jim (Elliot’s husband) traveled into the jungles of Ecuador in order to establish communication with the Huarani Tribe. The mission these men set out to achieve combined modern tech with some innate ingenuity, which was sparked by a passionate determination to get the gospel to people without Christ.

In a village nearby, their wives waiting to hear from them. The news they got, that all of the missionaries were murdered, changed lives around the world forever.

The book was written when she was still a missionary in South America, and is her personal account of the five courageous men’s last mission, at the request of men’s families.

“Keep a Quiet Heart” is a non-fiction book and was released in the year 1995. Quiet and peace. For a lot of people they are only words. Somehow we allowed life’s frenetic pace to steal away the restful and quiet times with God that we all so desperately need. The book has the rich devotional musings of one of America’s most favorite authors and leads the way to a deep experience with God. Away from the all the unsettling distractions from day to day life.