The Gilt Edge of Ambition is a rigorously researched biography of Ed Kripp, released in April 2026, tracing his rise to power in turn-of-the-century California through professional baseball and the broader, sometimes controversial, networks that sustained it. Supported by over 500 primary-source citations and spanning more than 350 pages, the work draws on contemporary records, historical artifacts, and archival photographs to examine how ambition, influence, and sport converged in a formative era.

Lisa Jonsson is a California native and the great-granddaughter of Ed Kripp. Her interest in his life began with family stories passed down by her grandmother and deepened through years of archival research. Having lived in both the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento, she has traced Kripp’s geographic and historical footprint firsthand, bringing together family memory, place, and primary sources to tell his story.

She is a member of the Society for American Baseball Research and contributes to its Nineteenth Century Notes, and has been approved to write a short biography of Ed Kripp for their BioProject.