Elizabeth von Armin grew up in England. During her first marriage, to Count Henning August von Arnim-Schlagenthin, she lived in Berlin and Pomerania, where she wrote the first of twenty-one novels. They had five children, who were tutored by E. M. Forster. After her husband's death, she moved to Switzerland, where she had a brief affair with H.G. Wells before marrying Francis, second Earl Russell, brother of Bertrand Russell. On the failure of her second marriage, Elizabeth ran away to America.