Jehanne D'Orliac (1883–1974)

Jehanne d'Orliac was the pen name of Anne Marie Jeanne Laporte, born to a prominent family from Gascony, France. She moved frequently in childhood to follow the postings of her father, a military officer, including to the French colony of New Caledonia in the southwest Pacific Ocean. In 1898, back in France, the family moved to Vesoul, where she attended a convent school. A legacy in 1905 from a maternal great-aunt, Bathilda Orliac, gave her the financial independence to devote herself to a writing career. She moved to Paris, where her work was published under the pseudonym Jehanne d'Orliac. She wrote several plays, 13 novels (including a sequel to Lady Chatterley's Lover), numerous works of history, biographies of powerful women, a radio play, a movie script, literary and philosophical studies, fables, short stories, songs, and three volumes of poetry. She also gave many lectures and seminars. She received many awards, including the Légion d'honneur, and is considered one of France's great "femmes de lettres" of the 20th century.