Marguerite Yourcenar

The recorded working language is French and English. The field of work recorded is novel, translation and literary criticism. Employment is recorded with Sarah Lawrence College. Positions recorded include seat 3 of the Académie française. Works named in the authority record are Memoirs of Hadrian, L'Oeuvre au noir, Alexis, Oriental Tales, Archives du Nord and Mishima: A Vision of the Void. Distinctions recorded are Commander of the Legion of Honour, Prix Femina, Erasmus Prize and Prince Pierre Award.

• Name — Marguerite Yourcenar • Birth Name — Marguerite Antoinette Jeanne Marie Ghislaine Cleenewerck de Crayencour • Born — 8 June 1903 • Birthplace — Brussels, Belgium • Died — 17 December 1987 • Place of death — Bar Harbor, Maine, US • Partners — Grace Frick (1937–1979; Frick's death) Jerry Wilson (1980–1986; his death) • Notable Works — Mémoires d'Hadrien • Awards — * Académie Française (1980) • Erasmus Prize (1983)

Yourcenar was born in Brussels, Belgium, as Marguerite Antoinette Jeanne Marie Ghislaine Cleenewerck de Crayencour, to Michel Cleenewerck de Crayencour and Fernande de Cartier de Marchienne. Her father was of French bourgeois descent, originating from French Flanders, and a wealthy landowner. Her mother, of Belgian nobility, died ten days after Marguerite's birth. She grew up in the home of her paternal grandmother, and adopted the surname Yourcenar as a pen name; in 1947, she also took it as her legal surname. Yourcenar's first novel, Alexis, was published in 1929. She translated Virginia Woolf's The Waves over a ten-month period in 1937. In 1939, her partner at the time, the literary scholar and Kansas City native Grace Frick, invited Yourcenar to the United States to escape the outbreak of World War II in Europe. She lectured in comparative literature in New York City and Sarah Lawrence College. Yourcenar and Frick became lovers in 1937 and remained together until Frick's death in 1979. After ten years spent in Hartford, Connecticut, they bought a house in Northeast Harbor, Maine, on Mount Desert Island, where they lived for decades. They are buried next to each other at Brookside Cemetery, Somesville, Mount Desert, Maine. Yourcenar's last companion was Jerry Wilson, with whom she had a tormented relationship; he died of AIDS in 1986. In 1951, Yourcenar published, in France, the novel Memoirs of Hadrian, which she had been writing on and off for a decade. The novel was an immediate success and met with critical acclaim. In this novel, Yourcenar recreated the life and death of one of the great rulers of the ancient world, the Roman emperor Hadrian, who writes a long letter to Marcus Aurelius, the son and heir of Antoninus Pius, his successor and adoptive son. Hadrian meditates on his past, describing both his triumphs and his failures, his love for Antinous, and his philosophy. The novel has become a modern classic. The English version was translated by Frick. In 1980, Yourcenar became the first female member elected to the Académie française. An anecdote tells of how the bathroom labels were then changed in this male-dominated institution: "Messieurs|Marguerite Yourcenar" (Gents/Marguerite Yourcenar). She published many novels, essays, and poems, as well as a trilogy of memoirs. At the time of her death, she was working on the third volume, titled Quoi? L'Eternité. Yourcenar's house on Mount Desert Island, Petite Plaisance, is now a museum dedicated to her memory. She is buried across the sound in Somesville. • Illustration — Marguerite Yourcenar's funeral plate. The epitaph, written in French, is from The Abyss: «Plaise à Celui qui Est peut-être de dilater le cœur de l'homme à la mesure de toute la vie.», which can be translated to "May it please the One who is perchance to expand the human heart to life's full measure."

Marguerite Yourcenar was recorded at birth as Marguerite Antoinette Jeanne Marie Ghislaine Cleenewerck de Crayencour. The authorities additionally record the headings Yourcenar, Marguerite Cleenewerck de Crayencour and Marguerite de Crayencour. Her recorded languages were French and English. She was the child of Michel de Crayencour and Fernande de Cartier de Marchienne. She married Grace Frick.

Marguerite Yourcenar worked in novel, translation, literary criticism, drama and literary activity. She was employed by Sarah Lawrence College. Recorded position is seat 3 of the Académie française. She belonged to Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts, American Academy of Arts and Letters, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Academie Royale de Langue et de littérature Françaises and Académie Française.

Marguerite Yourcenar is recorded as having received Commander of the Legion of Honour, Prix Femina and Erasmus Prize.