Edith London was born in Berlin, Germany in 1904. Between 1929 and 1931 Edith studied art at both the Verein Berliner Kuenstlerinnen under Wolf Roehricht in German and at the British Academy in Rome. At the time Adolf Hitler came to power, Edith London and her husband Fritz left Germany in 1933 and moved to London where Fritz continued as a widely know Physicist. Edith studied art  at Oxford and later at the Academie Andre L’hote in Paris.  The Londons immigrated to the United States when Fritz accepted a teaching position at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. London was a member of the Art Department at  Duke from  1955 -1969 and later returned as a visiting professor in 1973.

Edith London was best known for her abstract paintings and collages. Her work can be found in the collections of the North Carolina Museum of Art, The Cameron Museum of Art, Wilmington, NC, NC State University, Duke University, and the National Humanities Center. She had two solo exhibitions at the North Carolina Museum of Art and in 1988 was the recipient of the North Carolina Award in the Fine Arts.