Elizabeth Salter was born into a Barossa Valley pioneering family which opened one of South Australia's first wineries. She was educated at Miss Tucker's School for Girls at Angaston, the Wilderness School, the University of Adelaide (Arts) and the Elder Conservatorium. Salter wrote her first poem at the age of eleven, and had her first poem published at the age of seventeen. She joined the ABC as a record librarian and script writer. During World War II she was WAAF officer in charge of entertainment.
Salter left Australia in 1952 for England where she worked for the BBC and wrote professionally. She teamed up with Australian Composer Malcolm Williamson and subsequently with New Zealand composer Edwin Carr to write a musical, 'Girl from Down Under', but it was never performed. She became secretary to Dame Edith Sitwell (q.v.) in 1957 and continued in this position until Sitwell's death in 1964. Salter published her memoir of Edith Sitwell, Last Years of a Rebel, in 1967. Salter co-edited (with Allanah Harper) Edith Sitwell, Fire of the Mind: An Anthology (1976). She lectured on Sitwell and on Patrick White (q.v.) in England and Scotland, and travelled annually to Toronto to conduct writers' workshops.
Salter was awarded a Commonwealth Literary Grant to write the biography of Daisy Bates (q.v.), and she also wrote a biography of Sir Robert Helpmann (q.v.). She wrote a number of detective novels, some of which were set in Australia and New Zealand. Salter's books have been translated into other languages including Danish, Swedish and German. She was a member of International PEN and the Crime Writers' Association.
Salter died of cancer at the age of 62, after being ill for two years. Her manuscripts are held by the National Library of Australia.
