Elizabeth von Arnim

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Elizabeth von Arnim

Pencil sketch of Elizabeth von Arnim
Born 31 August 1866 (1866-08-31)
Kirribilli Point, Australia
Died 09 February 1941 (1941-02-10) (aged 74)
Charleston, South Carolina, USA
Occupation Writer
Nationality Australia
Period 1898-1936

Elizabeth von Arnim (31 August 1866 – 9 February 1941), born Mary Annette Beauchamp, was an Australian-born British novelist. By marriage she became Gräfin (Countess) von Arnim-Schlagenthin, and by a second marriage, Countess Russell. Although known in her early life as Mary, after the publication of her first book, she was known to her readers, eventually to her friends, and finally even to her family as Elizabeth[1] and she is now invariably referred to as Elizabeth von Arnim. She also wrote under the pen name Alice Cholmondeley.

Life

She was born at her family's holiday home in Kirribilli Point in Australia. When she was three years old, the family returned to England where she was raised. Her parents were Henry Herron Beauchamp (1825–1907), merchant, and her mother Elizabeth (Louey) Weiss Lassetter (1836–1919). Arnim had four brothers, a sister, and a cousin from New Zealand, Kathleen Beauchamp, who later married John Middleton Murry and wrote under the pen name Katherine Mansfield.[2]

In 1891, Elizabeth married Count Henning August von Arnim-Schlagenthin, a Prussian aristocrat, whom she had met during an Italian tour with her father. They lived in Berlin and eventually moved to the countryside where, in Nassenheide, Pomerania, the Arnims had their family estate. The couple had five children, four daughters and a son. The children's tutors at Nassenheide included E. M. Forster and Hugh Walpole.[3]

Arnim would later refer to her domineering husband as the "Man of Wrath". Writing was her refuge from what turned out to be an incompatible marriage. Arnim's husband had increasing debts and was eventually sent to prison for fraud. This was when she created her pen name "Elizabeth" and launched her career as a writer by publishing her semi-autobiographical, brooding, yet satirical Elizabeth and her German Garden (1898). It was such a success that it was reprinted twenty times in its first year.[4] A bitter-sweet memoir and companion to it was The Solitary Summer (1899). Other works, such as the The Benefactress (1902), Vera (1921), and Love (1925), were also semi-autobiographical. Other titles dealing with feminist protest and witty observations of life in provincial Germany were to follow, including The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight (1905) and Fraulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther (1907). She would sign her next twenty or so books simply as written, "by the author of Elizabeth and Her German Garden" and later simply "By Elizabeth". In 1908 Arnim left Nassenheide to return to London.[5]

Count von Arnim died in 1910, and in 1916 his widow married John Francis Stanley Russell, 2nd Earl Russell, elder brother of Bertrand Russell. The marriage ended in acrimony, with Elizabeth fleeing to the United States and the couple separating in 1919, although they never divorced. In 1920, she embarked on an affair with Alexander Stuart Frere Reeves (1892–1984), a British publisher nearly 30 years her junior; he later married and named his only daughter Elizabeth in her honour.[6]

From 1910 until 1913, she was a mistress of the novelist H.G. Wells.[7]

"In 1939 Elizabeth went to the United States, where she died of influenza at the Riverside Infirmary, Charleston, South Carolina, on 9 February 1941 [aged 74]. She was cremated at Lincoln Fort cemetery in Washington and in 1947 her ashes were mingled with her brother Sydney's in the churchyard of St Margaret's, Tylers Green, Penn, Buckinghamshire."[8]

Literary career

Von Arnim's literary career began with Elizabeth and Her German Garden in 1898. She went on to write another 20 books.

Her 1922 novel, The Enchanted April, has been adapted five times: as a Broadway play in 1925; an unsuccessful feature film by RKO in 1935; an Academy Award-nominated feature film by Miramax in 1992; a Tony Award-nominated stage play in 2003; and a musical play in 2010.

Her 1940 novel, Mr. Skeffington was made into an Academy Award-nominated feature film by Warner Bros. in 1944, starring Bette Davis and Claude Rains; and a 60-minute "Lux Radio Theater" broadcast radio adaptation of the movie on 1 October 1945.

Select bibliography

Library resources about
Elizabeth von Arnim
By Elizabeth von Arnim

Notes

  1. ↑ Usborne, Karen (1986). "Elizabeth", the author of Elizabeth and her German garden. London: Bodley Head. ISBN 0-370-30887-5. 
  2. ↑ See article by Nicola Beauman in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edition. Oxford University Press, 2004-2014.
  3. ↑ Hart-Davis, Rupert (1985). Hugh Walpole. Hamish Hamilton. pp. 47–53. ISBN 0241-11406-3. 
  4. ↑ http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/elizabeth-von-arnim-the-forgotten-feminist-whos-flowering-again-6258398.html
  5. ↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edition. Oxford University Press, 2004-2014.
  6. ↑ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D01EFDD1739F935A25753C1A962948260
  7. ↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edition. Oxford University Press, 2004-2014.
  8. ↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edition. Oxford University Press, 2004-2014.

References

  • de Charms, Leslie [Liebet Butterworth]. Elizabeth of the German Garden: A Biography (of Mary Annette Beauchamp, Countess von Arnim). London: Heinemann, 1958.
  • Eberle, Iwona (2011). Eve with a Spade: Women, Gardens, and Literature in the Nineteenth Century, with a Focus on Works by Elizabeth von Arnim. Munich: Grin. ISBN 978-3-640-84355-8
  • Juengling, Kirsten and Brigitte Rossbeck (1996). Elizabeth von Arnim; Eine Biographie. Frankfurt: Insel. ISBN 978-3-458-33540-5
  • Maddison, Isobel, Elizabeth von Arnim: Beyond the German Garden, Farnham: Ashgate, 2013. ISBN 978-1-4094-1167-3
  • Maddison, Isobel, 'A Second Flowering: Elizabeth and her German Garden,' London Library Magazine, Issue 15, Spring 2012
  • Maddison, Isobel, 'The Curious Case of Christine: Elizabeth von Arnim's Wartime Text,' First World War Studies, vol 3 (2) Oct 2012 pp. 183-200

Other biographies

  • Elizabeth of the German Garden (1958) (Leslie De Charms, a pseudonym for Elizabeth's daughter, Liebet)
  • Uncommon Arrangements, Seven Portraits of Married Life in London Literary Circles 1910–1939 (2008) (Katie Roiphe)

External links

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Elizabeth von Arnim
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