Elizabeth Wentworth Seaver was born on August 1, 1911. She graduated from Northampton High School before attending Mount Holyoke in 1929. She received an A.B. from Mount Holyoke College in 1933, and a M.A. from Radcliffe College in 1934. From 1938-39 she attended the Cooperative School for Student Teachers. She then became a third grade teacher at the Thomas School in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. In 1941 she began teaching nursery school, but soon moved to Woodward School in Brooklyn, New York. In 1942 she married Harry Carmozin Helfman and they had one child. Helfman then began writing children's books.