Ethel Barrett

Ethel Barrett (1913–1998) was an American author, storyteller, broadcaster, and speaker whose distinctive approach to storytelling introduced generations of children and families to the Bible and classic Christian literature.

Trained as a registered nurse, Barrett eventually devoted her career to storytelling. Known to audiences as “The Story Lady,” she brought stories to life through radio, recordings, books, and live appearances, combining careful research with humor, vivid characterization, and a remarkable ability to hold an audience.

Over the course of her career, Barrett wrote more than forty books. By 1989, her publisher Regal Books reported that more than four million copies of her books were in print. Her work encompassed Bible stories, biographies, Christian fiction, and books on the art of storytelling, including the Great Heroes of the Bible series, Ethel Barrett Tells Favorite Bible Stories, Which Way to Nineveh?, The War for Mansoul, and Storytelling: It’s Easy. Her books were published by a number of Christian publishers and reached readers and listeners across several generations.

Today, Ethel Barrett’s literary and audio archive is preserved by her family through Barrett Enterprises LLC, which manages her literary estate and is restoring selected out-of-print works through the Ethel Barrett Legacy Editions. These editions seek to preserve Barrett’s original voice, wit, and storytelling style while making her work available to a new generation of readers.