Edmonde Charles-Roux

• Name — Edmonde Charles-Roux • Birth Name — Marie-Charlotte Élisabeth Edmonde Charles-Roux • Born — 17 April 1920 • Birthplace — Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France • Died — 20 January 2016 • Place of death — Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, France • Awards — Prix Goncourt

Charles-Roux was born in 1920 at Neuilly-sur-Seine, the daughter of Francois Charles-Roux, the former French ambassador to Czechoslovakia, a member of the Institut de France and the last chairman of the Suez Canal Company. Her paternal grandfather, Jules Charles-Roux, was a businessman and politician.

Charles-Roux was a volunteer nurse in World War II, at first in a French Foreign Legion unit, the 11th infantry regiment abroad. She was wounded at Verdun while bringing aid to a legionnaire. Then she joined the Resistance, again as a nurse. After the landings in Provence, she was attached to the 5th Armored Division, where she performed as a nurse but also as a divisional social assistant. She also served in the 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment (1er REC) and the Mechanized Regiment of the Foreign Legion (RMLE). Decorated with the Croix de Guerre, she was made Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur in 1945, and received the distinction of Vivandière d'honneur from the RMLE at the hands of Louis-Antoine Gaultier, corps commander.

In 1946, she joined the staff of a magazine being created, a women's weekly: Elle, where she spent two years. From 1948, she worked for the French edition of Vogue, becoming the magazine's editor-in-chief in 1954. Reading Vogue democratized luxury while giving access to the most innovative artists of the time, whether such writers as Francois-Regis Bastide, Violette Leduc and Francois Nourissier or photographers such as Guy Bourdin, Henry Clarke or William Klein, or designers Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent and Emanuel Ungaro. By combining ready-to-wear and pop art, she connected fashion with any other form of creativity. She left Vogue Paris in 1966, as the result of a conflict for wanting to place a black woman on the cover of the magazine.

• Oublier Palerme, 1966, Grasset, novel, prix Goncourt 1966 • Elle, Adrienne, 1971, Grasset, novel • L'Irrégulière ou mon itinéraire Chanel, 1974, Grasset, biography • Stèle pour un bâtard, 1980, Grasset, novel • Une enfance sicilienne, 1981, Grasset, novel • Un désir d'Orient, biography of Isabelle Eberhardt, vol I, 1989 Grasset • Nomade j'étais, biography of Isabelle Eberhardt, vol II, 1995 Grasset • L'homme de Marseille, 2003, Grasset, photographic album • Isabelle du désert, 2003 volume combining "Un désir d'Orient" and "Nomade j'étais" Grasset • Le Temps Chanel, 1979, La Martinière / Grasset, photographic album

• To forget Palermo, Delacorte Press, 1968 • Chanel: her life, her world, and the woman behind the legend she herself created, Knopf, 1975, • Chanel and her world: friends, fashion, and fame, Vendome Press, 2005,

Edmonde Charles-Roux was recorded at birth as Marie Charlotte Élisabeth Paule Edmonde Charles-Roux. Her recorded language was French. She was the child of François Charles-Roux and Sabine Gounelle. She married Gaston Defferre. Other recorded relations include Jean, Charles, Raymond Roux.