Lisa Ruutz was born in Bern. Heinrich Ruutz, her father, owned a fabrics and textiles shop in Basel. She undertook artistic training successively in Basel, Paris and Florence, finishing off at the Fine Arts Academy in Düsseldorf. Her teachers in Basel, included Hans Sandreuter. In 1881 Lisa Ruutz opened a porcelain painting workshop, targeted on women and young ladies in Basel. In 1890 she married Théo Wenger, the owner of a "steel goods" factory. That involved relocating to Delémont which at the time was still in the Canton of Bern. It was only on reaching the age of 46, after establishing herself at nearby Courtételle, that she embarked on the career for which she is todaybetter remembered, as a children's author. After 1919 Lisa and Théo Wenger became regular visitors to Carona in Ticino, members of the little informal summer season writers and artists' colony surrounding the author Hermann Hesse who moved to Luganoafter the war. Their daughter :de:Ruth Wenger|Ruth Wenger became a particularly welcome guest at the "Casa Costanza". Eventually, in 1924, Ruth Wenger married Hermann Hesse. Ruth was twenty years younger than her husband and her first marriage was of short duration: the family attachment to Ticino appears to have lasted better, since it was at Carona that Lisa Wenger died in the autumn/fall of 1941.
Published output (selection)
Das blaue Märchenbuch 1905
Wie der Wald still ward, animal story 1906
:de:Der Bauer schickt den Jockel aus|Joggeli söll ga Birli schüttle, 1908
Die drei gescheiten Männer von Au. Vetter Jeremias and die Schwestern Tanzeysen., novels 1919
Die Longway und ihre Ehen., novel 1930
Die Wunderdoktorin,novel 1910
Eine Heimkehr
Elisabeth sucht Gott, 1941
Er und Sie und das Paradies, 1918
Es schwärs Warte. Einakter, 1930
Hans-Peter Ochsner., novel 1955
Licht und Schatten in San Marto, novel 1940
Oh wie bös, oh nit so bös: die Geschichte vom Mannli und vom Fraueli, 1946
s Zeiche: ein Schauspiel in drei Akten, 1916
Verenas Hochzeit, 1939
Vier junge Musikanten erleben Abenteuer. Zeichnungen von Fritz Deringer. :de:Schweizerisches Jugendschriftenwerk|Schweizerisches Jugendschriftenwerk 1940, SJW-Issue Nr. 88
Was mich das Leben lehrte: Gedanken und Erfahrungen, 1927
Wie der Wald still ward, 1907
Aber, aber Kristinli. Schweizerisches Jugendschriftenwerk 1935, SJW-Issue Nr. 48, Jubiläumsausgabe-Reprint 2006 with illustrations by Meret Oppenheim,
