Among the 17 published books Partnow has written or co-written are: Speaking with Power, Poise & Ease (2012), The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Your True Age (2009), and The Female Dramatist (1998).
She attended UCLA, where she majored in Theatre Arts and was the youngest person at the time to win Best Actress from the department’s Kap ‘n Bells Honor Society.
From New Orleans she moved to Seattle where her programs became popular with the “Inquiring Minds” series sponsored by the Washington Commission for the Humanities.
[4] The Quotable Woman Speaks: Living History Portraits of Amazing Women is now available in its first series, "Global Women Speak”; the six historical figures she portrays are Murasaki Shikibu, Juana Ines de la Cruz, Sarah Winnemucca, Sojourner Truth, Golda Meir, and Benazir Bhutto.
A self-taught “quotologist,” Partnow’s work is cited in Quotology[5] (2009), by Willis Goth Regier, director of the University of Illinois Press.
In 1973, after enduring a succession of illnesses, accidents and tragedies, culminating in the death of her mother, an avid fan of quotation collections, at age 61, Elaine felt lost.
One night, while resting on her mother’s bed and contemplating her future, she saw what she later described as a “holographic” image of a book entitled The Quotable Woman; she saw the cover design, the title, and the contents!
As an editor and writing coach, Partnow operates an editorial services business, Editing by Elaine, and has taught adult extension courses on how to get published, public speaking techniques and other subjects.