She was born in Brussels and educated privately to a prodigious standard. Her privileged background enabled her to have her first collection of poetry privately published while still in her teens, and she went on to be a prolific writer. In 1939, at the beginning of the Second World War, she emigrated to the United States. The French government later awarded her honorary citizenship, and she was elected to the Académie française, the first female author to be so honoured.