Claude Ferval (1856–1943)

Claude Ferval was the pen name of Baroness Marguerite Aimery Harty de Pierrebourg, née Thomas-Galline, born in Agen, France. Her father was a general in the French Army and moved the family from garrison to garrison. She spent part of her childhood in Lyon, where she attended a convent boarding school. In 1876, she married Baron Aimery Harty de Pierrebourg, an army officer, with whom she had two children. She accompanied him to Algeria and to his other assignments. For many years, she took lessons at the Académie Julian in Paris, under the direction of painter Tony-Robert Fleury, and exhibited her work at the Salon. She published her first novel, L'autre amour in 1902 to good reviews and received the Prix Montyon from the Académie française. Ferval separated from her husband and had a long affair with novelist and playwright Paul Hervieu. She became a friend of Marcel Proust. Ferval also wrote biographies that were very popular in her day, mostly of famous female figures in French history. In 1912, Ferval became president of the jury for the Prix de la Vie Heureuse, later renamed the Prix Fémina. She was a member of the Société des Gens de Lettres.