Author: Marguerite Yourcenar
Profile: Marguerite Yourcenar was a French poet, essayist and novelist. She was born in Brussels, Belgium and died in Bar Harbor, Maine, U.S. Marguerite Yourcenar was born Marguerite Antoinette Jeanne Marie Ghislaine Cleenewerck de Crayencour to Fernande de Cartier de Marchienne, a Belgian mother and Michel Cleenewerck Flanders, a rich landowner. Her paternal grandmother took care of her in her younger days.
In 1947 she became a citizen of the United States. In 1980 she was the first woman to be elected to the Academie Francaise and the seventh individual to occupy Seat 3. Her most notable work is Memoires d’Hadrien. Marguerite Yourcenar was a bisexual and lived with her partner and lover, Grace Frick till Frick died in 1979. With Jerry Wilson she had a distressful relationship.
Almost an anagram, she adopted Yourcenar, her surname as a pen name in the year 1947 which she also made it as her legal surname. In 1929 Marguerite published her debut novel. In 1937 over a ten month period she translated, ‘The Waves’ of Virginia Woolf. Yourcenar was invited by Grace Frick her partner to the U.S. in 1939 to escape from the World War II outbreak in Europe. In the U.S. she gave lectures in comparative literature in Sarah Lawrence Collee and New York City.
Writing style: Marguerite Yourcena’s genre was poetry, fiction, drama and nonfiction.
Published Texts:
Bibliography
1921 – Le jardin des chimeres
1922 – Les dieux ne sont pas morts
1029 – Alexis ou le traite du vain combat
1931 – La nouvelle Eurydice
1932 – Pindare
1934 – Denier du reve
1934 – La mor conduit l’attelage
1936 – Feux (prose poem)
1938 – Nouvelles orientales (short stories)
1938 – Les songes et les sorts
1939 – Le coup de grace
1951 – Memoires d’Hadrien
1954 – Electre ou la chute des masques
1956 – Les charites d’Alcippe
1958 – Constantin Cavafy
1962 – Sous benefice d’inventaire
1964 – Fleuve profond, sombre riviere: les negros spirituals
1968 – L’Ceuvre au noir
1974 – Sourvenirs pieux
1977 – Archives du Nord
1974-84 – Le labyrinth du monde
1980 – Mishima oou la vision du vide (essay)
1981 – Anna, soror
1982 – Comme l’eau qui coule
1984 – Le temps, ce grand sculpteur
1984 – The Dark Brain of Piranesi and Other Essays
1986 – La Couronne et la Lyre
1988 – Quoi? L Eternite
Other works available in English translation
`A Blue Tale and Other Stories
With Open Eyes: Conversations with Matthieu Galey
Awards and Acknowledgements:
1952 – Prix Femina Vacaresco for Memoires d’Hadrien (Memoirs of Hadrian)
1958 – Prix Renee Vivien for Les charites d’Alcippe (The Alms of Alcippe)
1963 – Prix Combat for Sous benefice d’inventaire (The Dark Brain of Piranesi)
1968 – Prix Femina for L’OEuvre au noir (The Abyss)
1972 – Prix Prince Pierre de Monaco for her entire oeuvre
1974 – Grand Prix national de la culture for Souvenirs pieux (Dear Departed)
1977 – Grand Prix de l’Academie francaise for her entire oeuvre
1980 – Elected to the Academie francaise, the first woman so honored
1983 – Winner of the Erasmus Prize for contributions to European literature and culture
1987 – Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
2003, 12th November, Belgium – A postage stamp is issued by Belgium with the value of 0.59 Euro
2020 – Her 117th birthday was celebrated with a Google Doodle by Google