Marguerite Yourcenar Becomes the First Woman Elected to the Académie Française
Marguerite Yourcenar made history on March 6, 1980, by becoming the first woman elected to the Académie Française, a prestigious institution established in 1635 to uphold the French language and literature. Despite the significant contributions of women to French literature over the years, they had previously been excluded from the Academy, which comprises only 40 members at any time. Yourcenar, born Marguerite de Crayencour in 1903 in Brussels, Belgium, was raised in a cultured environment and displayed an early passion for language and history. After a notable literary career that included her celebrated works "Mémoires d'Hadrien" and "L'Oeuvre au Noir," she became a naturalized U.S. citizen while continuing to identify as a French author. Yourcenar's writing often featured historical themes and rich character studies, earning her critical acclaim. Her election to the Académie Française marked a significant milestone in recognizing women's contributions to literature and culture in France. Following her election, she was also honored as a Commander of the French Legion of Honor. Yourcenar passed away in 1987, leaving behind a legacy as both a prolific writer and a trailblazer for women in literature.
Marguerite Yourcenar Becomes the First Woman Elected to the Académie Française
Marguerite Yourcenar Becomes the First Woman Elected to the Académie Française
The Académie Française, or French Academy, is an ancient and prestigious French cultural institution, founded in 1635 by Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu to preserve the purity of the French language. There are never more than 40 members at a time, and when a vacancy occurs, the academicians vote among themselves to elect a new member. Over the years most of France's eminent writers have received this honor with the single exception of women, who have played a considerable role in French literature. On March 6, 1980, however, the Académie took a momentous step: It elected its first woman member, the novelist Marguerite Yourcenar, a naturalized citizen of the United States.
Marguerite Yourcenar was born Marguerite de Crayencour in 1903 in Brussels, Belgium, the child of cosmopolitan, upper-class parents. Her mother, who was Belgian, died a few days after Marguerite was born, and she was raised by her French father and educated at home by a succession of governesses and tutors. She showed an early interest in language, history, and myth. Her first book, a collection of poems grounded in Greek mythology, was published in 1921, when she was still a teenager; her first novel appeared in 1929. (Yourcenar, the pen name she invented, is a near anagram of Crayencour.)
In the 1930s Yourcenar began a relationship with an American named Grace Frick, who became her lifelong companion. This American connection helped her to emigrate to the United States in 1939, after the outbreak of World War II. There Yourcenar was able to secure a teaching position at Sarah Lawrence College; she also continued to translate American and British novels into French. Although she became a U.S. citizen in 1947, she considered herself a French author and wrote exclusively in that language, finding new challenges in a broad array of settings and characters.
Yourcenar is best known for her historical reconstructions. Her most famous work, Mémoires d'Hadrien (Memoirs of Hadrian, 1951), is a fictional autobiography of the Roman emperor Hadrian, addressed to his heir, Marcus Aurelius. It was widely praised for its scrupulous historical accuracy and its imaginative and convincing recreation of the emperor's inner life. Almost as famous was L'Oeuvre au Noir (The abyss, 1968), recounting the life of an alchemist-physician in Renaissance Flanders. Besides her novels, Yourcenar produced several volumes of plays and some autobiographical works.
Subsequent to her election to the Académie Française, Yourcenar was made a Commander of the French Legion of Honor. She died at her home in Maine in 1987.