Marguerite Yourcenar: Biography, Death, Love, Books

Marguerite Yourcenar: Biography, Death, Love ... The author's strong quotes

BIOGRAPHY MARGUERITE YOURCENAR - While Marguerite Yourcenar was born 117 years ago, Google paid tribute to her this Monday, June 8. Find below the journey of the first academician, as well as a selection of her most beautiful quotes.

In Eyes Open, Marguerite Yourcenar wrote: "It always takes a stroke of madness to build a destiny." His was extraordinary… This Monday, June 8, 2020, the author would have been 117 years old. On this occasion, Google pays tribute to him with a "Doodle". Marguerite Yourcenar embodied the plural woman. She was a woman of letters: writer, poet, academician ... "The relationship between the writer and his characters is difficult to describe. It is a bit the same as between parents and children", she explained to Claude Servan-Schreiber in an interview in July 1976. But, Marguerite Yourcenar was also a resolutely modern woman with strong convictions and assumed (bi) sexuality. Witness this temperament, his famous quote from the preface by Gita Govinda; the loves of Krishna: "The unusual and the illicit, two essential ingredients of any pornography." And among the other quotations of the author, one will retain: "It is to be wrong to be right too early"; "Nobody yet knows if everything lives only to die or dies only to be reborn"; "Love is a punishment. We are punished for not being able to remain alone" ... Back to the atypical destiny of this incontestable literary personality. Nobody yet knows if everything lives only to die or dies only to be reborn ";" Love is a punishment. We are punished for not having been able to remain alone "... Return to the atypical destiny of this incontestable literary personality. Nobody yet knows if everything lives only to die or dies only to be reborn ";" Love is a punishment. We are punished for not having been able to remain alone "... Return to the atypical destiny of this incontestable literary personality. 

Short biography of Marguerite Yourcenar - Marguerite Antoinette Jeanne Marie Ghislaine Cleenewerck de Crayencour, known under the pseudonym of Marguerite Yourcenar, is a French writer, poet and literary critic. Born June 8, 1903 in Brussels to a French father and a Belgian mother, she spent her childhood in the property of her paternal grandmother in the North of France. Orphaned by mother only a few days after her birth, she was raised there by her father, a great traveler who initiated her into a cosmopolitan life. Although she never set foot in school because of her many trips, she obtained her Latin-Greek baccalaureate in Aix-en-Provence. In 1921, at just 18, she published her first poem, Le Jardin des chimères. In 1929, trying her hand at all literary genres, she published her first novel, Alexis or the Treaty of vain combat , which tells the story of a famous musician who confesses his homosexuality to his wife and tells her of her desire. to leave her. But ten years later, war broke out. Marguerite Yourcenar leaves for the United States to join her partner Grace Frick. She settled on the island of Monts Déserts and obtained American nationality in 1947. The author then alternated periods of isolation on his island and long journeys which fueled his inspiration. Sexuality and painful romantic relationships are themes that recur in his work, which is partly explained by his own bisexuality. In 1951,. This new historical novel, imbued with a strong humanism knows a great international success and makes him acquire the status of great writer. On March 6, 1980, Marguerite Yourcenar became the first woman to join the French Academy, where she sat until her death on December 17, 1987 at the age of 84.

Marguerite Yourcenar's books 

After obtaining her baccalaureate, Marguerite Yourcenar embarked on poetic writing. In 1921, she published her first dialogical poem, Le Jardin des Chimères , under the pseudonym of Marg Yourcenar. The latter is followed the following year by a collection of poems, The Gods are not dead. It was on the death of her father in 1929 that Marguerite Yourcenar devoted herself entirely to literature and published her first epistolary novel. Entitled Alexis or the treaty of the vain combat, the work reveals the meticulous and refined style of the author imbued with great Classicism . In 1936 and after a love disillusionment for a man who did not love him, Marguerite Youcenar published Feuxa series of short stories of lyrical prose. She then composed Nouvelles Orientales (1938) and Le Coup de Grâce (1939). Also a translator, Marguerite Youcenar performs numerous translations of literary works and American gospel as evidenced by the collection Fleuve deep, somber river inspired by sacred themes and creation. At the end of her life, Marguerite Yourcenar published an autobiographical account: Souvenirs pieux. The first of a trilogy, the book traces the author's childhood. However, these are his two novels: the Memoirs of Hadrian (1951) and L'Œuvre au noir (1968) which will allow Marguerite Yourcenar to gain recognition from her peers at the same time as global success.

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The Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar 

In 1951, Marguerite Yourcenar, always fascinated by the Greco-Latin world, publishes the Memoirs of Hadrian , a historical novel presented as a letter addressed by the aging emperor Hadrien to Marc Aurèle , future emperor. Sixty years old, the Roman emperor takes Stock of his life, evokes his youth as well as the people, the fights, and the readings which influenced him. In a tone of confession, the man also evokes at length the torments of His passion for his young lover Antinoüs. Performing a real meditation on his journey, Hadrian also pours on the secret circumstances that allowed him to become emperor. A true worldwide success, the Memoirs of Hadrian were awarded the Femina-Vacaresco Prize, then by the French Academy in 1952. Also crowned with the Newspaper Guild of New York Page One Award in 1955, the work enabled Marguerite Yourcenar to definitively assert his status as a writer.

Marguerite Yourcenar's entry to the French Academy 

On March 6, 1980, Marguerite Yourcenar was elected to the French Academy. Succeeding the writer Roger Caillois, the author of the Mémoires d'Adrien and L'Oeuvre au noir thus becomes The first woman to integrate this institution. Although others before her had already tried to apply, the French Academy remained until then a bastion reserved for men. However, although the author already obtained the Grand Prize for Literature from the French Academy in 1977 for his work Mémoires d'Hadrien, his entry into the institution was not without difficulty. The admission of Marguerite Yourcenar alongside the "wise men" provokes a lively Controversyamong academics little excited at the simple idea of ​​electing a woman. However, the author is supported by Jean d'Ormesson , writer on the initiative of his candidacy who defends his admission to the Dome. Confirming the exceptional talent of the author, the election is a real literary consecration for Marguerite Yourcenar. Marking at the time an important step for the recognition of women in society, it also opened the way to the election of other women to the French Academy such as Béatrix Beck and Danièle Sallenave.

MARGUERITE YOURCENAR: KEY DATES

June 8, 1903: Birth of Marguerite Yourcenar 

The French writer Marguerite Yourcenar was born on June 8, 1903 in Brussels, under the name of Marguerite Cleenewerck de Crayencour. Naturalized American, the author became famous for his autobiographical stories and for his numerous short stories such as Oriental News in 1938. 

December 17, 1987: Death of Marguerite Yourcenar 

Marguerite Yourcenar died on December 17, 1987 in Bangor in the United States. Elected to the French Academy in 1980 at the age of 76, she was the first woman to join the institution. She leaves behind famous novels like the Memoirs of Adrien or L'Oeuvre au noir .