Isabelle Eberhardt was born in 1877 in Geneva, Switzerland, and spent a great part of her life in Algeria. As a teenager, Eberhardt, educated in Switzerland by her father, published short stories under a male pseudonym. She became interested in North Africa, and was considered a proficient writer on the subject despite learning about the region only through correspondence. In September 1901, she was expelled from Algeria because she was suspected of spying activities with her partner, Slimane Ehnni, and openly criticized the colonial system. The same year, she married at Marseille and obtained the French citizenship. In 1904, at the age of 27, she was killed by a flash flood in Ain-Sefra in Algeria.