Ellen Dooling Draper

Background

Ellen Dooling Draper was born on January 27, 1944, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States. She was the daughter of John and Dorothea (Matthews) Dooling.

Education

Ellen Dooling Draper studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She obtained a bachelor of music.

Career

Ellen Dooling Draper's interest in writing began when she was the editor of Parabola: Magazine of Myth and Tradition from 1988 to 1995. In addition to developing the theme of each issue, contacting and working with contributors, and editing their submissions, she wrote and translated (from French into English) for certain issues. She was fascinated with the exploration of such themes as healing, time and presence, or the stranger, all from the perspectives of myth, story, and tradition. During those years Ellen worked with Dorothea Matthews Dooling, her mother and the founder of Parabola, and Pamela Lindon Travers, author of the Mary Poppins books and cofounder of Parabola.

After both their deaths, Ellen left Parabola and, along with Virginia Baron, founded Living Treasures. This not-for-profit venture is dedicated to the investigation of themes and questions as they are expressed in the oral traditions within American culture. Since 1996 the company has presented programs on the hidden inner dimensions of New York City and on the traditions and stories of Native American cultures. Its workshops have explored the individual stories of people's own lives - names and origins, and the idea of home.

At the same time, Ellen Dooling Draper has continued editing and writing, first of all focusing on the work of Dorothea Matthews Dooling and Pamela Lindon Travers. The Spirit of Quest is a collection of Dooling’s essays and poems. A Lively Oracle was a three-year project Ellen Dooling Draper undertook with Jenny Koralek to celebrate the work of Pamela Lindon Travers on the centennial of her birth. Ellen Dooling Draper is currently working on a fictionalization of the journals of Dorothea Matthews Dooling, which describes her early years as a Montana cattle rancher’s wife. She is also collecting material for a book about home, based on the programs of Living Treasures.

Achievements

• Ellen Dooling Drape wrote A Lively Oracle: A Centennial Celebration of Pamela Lindon Travers, Magical Creator of Mary Poppins and The Spirit of Quest. These books were highly esteemed by many critics.

Works

More photos

• book

  • A Lively Oracle: A Centennial Celebration of P.L. Travers, Magical Creator of Mary Poppins

    (Everyone knows Mary Poppins - at least her Disneyfied ver...)

    1999

Politics

Ellen Draper was a Democrat.

Views

The process of editing, translating, and essay writing are, for Ellen, primarily disciplines of thinking: identifying the questions, then sorting, separating, and reconnecting different aspects of the question until a new understanding is reached. Writing, for her, is a demanding and rewarding task, one in which she often loses track of time.

Interests

• books, traditions, history

• Writers

  Pamela Lindon Travers

Connections

Ellen Dooling Draper got divorced. She has three children: Frederick, Matthew, Linda.

Father:

John Matthews Dooling

Mother:

Dorothea Matthews Dooling

Son:

Frederick Draper

Son:

Matthew Draper

Daughter:

Linda Draper

colleague:

Virginia Baron

colleague:

Pamela Lindon Travers

References

• Contemporary Authors New Revision Series: A Bio-Bibliographical Guide to Current Writers in Fiction, General Non-Fiction, Poetry, Journalism, Drama, Motion Pictures, TV, & Other Fields
  2010