Alice de Chambrier

Alice de Chambrier (28 September 1861 – 20 December 1882) was a Swiss poet. She is best known for Au-delà, an anthology of poems.

Biography Alice de Chambrier was born on 28 September 1861 in Neuchâtel, to Alfred de Chambrier and Sophie de Sandol-Roy. Her mother died before de Chambrier turned one year old, and she grew up in Neuchâtel with her father. When she was fifteen she moved to Darmstadt where she remained in the years between 1876 and 1877. While there she learned German and began composing poetry in German.

She wrote her first work at age 17. She attended a girls' school, called l'Ecole Supérieure des Jeunes Demoiselles, where her first compositions acquired some popularity.

She died on 20 December 1882. The introduction to Au-delà, written by Godet, who was present at her death, describes the deterioration of her health: "Falling ill following a chill, on Saturday December 16th 1882, she did not interrupt her furious work for a moment. On Sunday she was still chatting with a friend and forming travel plans: she was speaking of undertaking nothing less than a voyage around the globe. Her condition ... aggravated after noon on Monday, and after having dedicated long hours to retouching and recopying her poem on Lamartine, she had to resign herself to going to bed. On Tuesday, she was still correcting her drafts for M. Imer at three in the afternoon ... At five, the agony had begun; she expired without suffering the next morning."

Major works Atlantide, May 1880 Belladonna, in Trois Nouvelles : Verena, Belladonna, Cendrillon, par M. S. Framel, Alice de Chambrier et F. Guillemet, Lausanne, Arthur Imer, 1882 Au-delà, 1883 Le Chatelard de Bevaix dans le Musée neuchâtelois, 1884. Œuvres poétiques, Neuchâtel, éditions de la Baconnière, 1972 Sibylle ou le Chatelard de Bevaix, Genève, 1983 Légendes et récits, Liminaire, Genève, 1990 Poèmes choisis, Lausanne, éditions L'Âge d'Homme, 1998 Oh ! Laissez-moi chanter..., 2004