Elisabeth Kyle was born in Ayr, Scotland, in 1896. Her father, who died when she was nine, was a lawyer who wanted to be a writer, and he tried to interest his daughter in good literature, carefully supervising what she read. Because her health was delicate, Kyle was privately educated by an English governess and making up stories was her favorite pastime.

While still in her teens, Kyle began writing stories for young readers, but she was, in her words, "sidetracked" into newspaper work for the Manchester Guardian and later the Glasgow Herald.

In the 1920s and 1930s she traveled widely in Central and Eastern Europe as a correspondent for the Guardian. Eventually she contributed to every major U.S. and European magazine of her time.

In the early 1940s Kyle began writing novels and biographies for young readers. She found that she could write...