This book was written by Christian author and speaker Elisabeth Elliot (1926–2015) in 1957. Elisabeth was a missionary to the Waodäni people of Ecuador in the 1950s with her husband, Jim Elliot. She chose to stay and live with the tribe after a Waodäni hunting party killed Jim and four other missionaries in 1956. After Jim’s death, Elisabeth was encouraged to write about what happened. She resisted at first, not wanting to turn attention to herself, and thus away from the work, but eventually realized that telling the story would help the mission continue. Elisabeth returned to the United States in 1963. Through Gates of Splendor has since become her most popular work.