Yourcenar, Marguerite (1903–1987)

French writer. She first gained recognition as a novelist in France in the 1930s with books such as La Nouvelle Euridyce/The New Euridyce (1931). Her evocation of past eras and characters, exemplified in Les Mémoires d'Hadrien/The Memoirs of Hadrian (1951), brought her acclaim as a historical novelist. In 1939 she settled in the USA. In 1980 she became the first woman to be elected to the French Academy.

Her mother died a few days after her birth and she attended neither school nor university.