Russell, Mary Annette Russell, Countess


Russell, Mary Annette (Beauchamp) Russell, Countess,

pseud.

Elizabeth,

1866–1941, English novelist, b. Sydney, Australia; cousin of Katherine Mansfield. In 1890 she married Count Henning von Arnim and went to live in Germany. There she wrote her first novel, Elizabeth and Her German Garden (1898), which was immediately successful, and its successors, including The Solitary Summer (1899), Adventures of Elizabeth in Rügen (1904), and The Pastor's Wife (1914). Highly autobiographical, her novels are witty, gay, and gently satirical. Her husband died in 1910, and in 1916 she married the 2d Earl Russell, brother of Bertrand Russell. Among her later works are The Enchanted April (1922); Love (1925); Jasmine Farm (1934); and Mr. Skeffington (1940).