Marcelle Auclair

Marcelle Auclair (11 November 1899 – 6 June 1983) was a French novelist, biographer, journalist and poet. She published biographies of several important historical figures, translated major historical/literary documents into French from Spanish, and wrote a novel. She also published an autobiographical work, two books on popular psychology, a religious book for children, a book on artistic images of Jesus. Several of her books were translated into English. She was co-founder with Jean Prouvost of the fashion magazine Marie Claire.

Biography Marcelle Auclair was born 11 November 1899 in Montluçon, central France, and died in Paris on 6 June 1984. They divorced in 1938. and Bernadette of Lourdes (1957). She also published biographies of Spanish poet and playwright Federico García Lorca, whom she knew personally (1968), and of the early 20th century pro-peace French socialist Jean Jaurès (1954).

Auclair's first original publication was Transparence, a book of original poetry in Spanish, published when she was 20 years old, and living in Santiago, Chile. Another early publication, in French, was Auclair's novel, Toya, published in 1927.

In 1937, Auclair and Jean Prouvost founded the fashion magazine Marie Claire. Auclair wrote many articles for Marie Claire, extending over a period of several years. In A History of Private Life (1991), writing about Auclair's time as a columnist for the magazine Marie Claire, Antoine Prost stated that quote Columnists such as Marcelle Auclair, Marcelle Ségal, and Ménie Grégoire, who answered readers’ letters, became confessors to the nation. New moral authorities, they dispensed intimate advice to millions every week.

In 1953, Auclair published a French-language children's book about the life of Jesus. The book was republished in English translation in both the US and the UK.

Auclair's translation of the complete works of Teresa of Avila from Spanish to French was first published in 1964.

At age 78, five years before her death, Auclair published an autobiographical work with her daughter, actress Françoise Prévost.

In European Literary Heritage, Auclair was described as "particularly attached to moral issues and the situation of women in the contemporary world [particulièrement attachée aux problèmes moraux et à la situation de la femme dans le monde contemporain]."

Selected works

Translated into English (457 pages) French original: (493 pages) German translation: (491 pages)

(204 pages) French original: (284 pages)

(139 pages) French original: (144 pages)

French, untranslated into English (218 pages) (673 pages) (200 pages) (477 pages) Spanish translation: (411 pages). Includes excerpts from García Lorca's works. (429 pages)

Children's books (126 pages) English edition (US): (93 pages). Translation of La bonne nouvelle annoncee aux enfants English edition (UK): (125 pages)