Elizabeth Ballantine

Elizabeth Ballantine first visited the Mill Reef Club in the 1960s with her family during boarding school vacations. Her grandfather John Cowles, a Minnesota and Iowa newspaper publisher, built Friar's Head on an exposed peninsula in 1952 and often entertained his family in letters with stories of the early years at the club. Elizabeth was born in Minneapolis and grew up in Durango, Colorado, where her family owned the local newspaper. She is a graduate of Concord Academy and Yale University,...See more

Elizabeth Ballantine first visited the Mill Reef Club in the 1960s with her family during boarding school vacations. Her grandfather John Cowles, a Minnesota and Iowa newspaper publisher, built Friar's Head on an exposed peninsula in 1952 and often entertained his family in letters with stories of the early years at the club. Elizabeth was born in Minneapolis and grew up in Durango, Colorado, where her family owned the local newspaper. She is a graduate of Concord Academy and Yale University, where she earned her BA, MA, and PHD in Russian history. She also earned a JD from American University in Washington, DC. Her career includes working as a journalist and service on boards of directors in the higher education, financial, and media industries. She and her husband, Paul Leavitt, own a house at the club. Elizabeth is the co-author with Stephen Lash of two previous books on Mill Reef. Graydon Carter was editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair for twenty-five years during a golden era of magazines. He is now co-editor of Air Mail, where he serves as tastemaker for the worldly cosmopolitans. See less