Born in London, Toinette Lippe had a long and distinguished career at Alfred A. Knopf. In 1989 she founded Bell Tower, where she published seventy books that nourished the soul, illuminated the mind, and spoke directly to the heart. Her first book, Nothing Left Over: A Plain and Simple Life was published in 2002. After fifty years in publishing Toinette abandoned editorial work and devotes herself to East Asian brush painting, which she taught at the Educational Alliance for four years and now teaches on the Upper West Side of New York City.