Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette [1873-1954], was born in the village of
Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye, where she led an idyllic childhood. At
the age of twenty, she married Henri Gauthier-Villars, known as
Willy, a Parisian man of letters under whose name she published the
Claudine novels. Separated from Willy in 1905, Colette supported
herself as an actress before establishing her own reputation as a
writer. She was celebrated in later years as one of the great
figures of twentieth-century French life and letters, and was the
first woman to be accorded a state funeral by the French
Republic.
Judith Thurman is the author of Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of
Colette and of Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller, which won
the National Book Award for Biography in 1983. She is a widely
published literary critic, cultural journalist, and translator of
poetry.
![]() |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
![]() |