Marie-Antoinette Duchesne

Marie-Antoinette (or Marie Antoinette) Cailleau Duchesne (after 1713 – 1793) was an 18th-century bookseller and publisher in Paris, France. In 1767, Voltaire used a commonly used phrase when he called her, "the exact and shrewd widow Duchesne."

Life and work Marie-Antoinette was born in Paris, the daughter of André Cailleau and Antoinette Pérette Huguier, after 1713.

She married Nicolas-Bonaventure Duchesne on 28 April 1747, a merchant who had traveled to Paris from the Cotentin Peninsula, in Normandy, to find work with various book vendors. With his marriage to Marie-Antoinette, the daughter of a master bookseller, Duchesne was received into the Paris community and took over André Cailleau's successful bookshop. Duchesne went on to develop a very active publishing policy favoring theater and literature, the publication of famous authors such as Voltaire and Rousseau, she offered an extensive list of works for sale and in the course of her business she met with many other booksellers in France and abroad. She also maintained contacts with numerous authors. She became a regular correspondent with Voltaire on the occasion of the publication of a new edition of his Œuvres de Théâtre in 1767. She also worked regularly with Rétif de la Bretonne, who sold his works through her enterprise. During the French Revolution, her bookshop hosted literary events for playwrights and authors including Collot d'Herbois, Fabre d'Églantine and Olympe de Gouges.

Her commercial success allowed Widow Duchesne to acquire wealth and property in Paris. For example, she acquired the house adjoining hers on rue Saint-Jacques in 1780, then built a country house in the village of Saint-Mandé after 1783. Not surprisingly, she was taxed at high poll tax rates in her professional community. Her exceptional qualities as a businesswoman became evident again with the successful marriages of her two daughters. She arranged the 1769 marriage of her eldest, Marie Antoinette to Nicolas Defer, an engineer and contractor of the king's farms. Her youngest, Charlotte Antoinette, married Jean Colombier, a doctor regent of the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, in 1771.

The Widow Duchesne remained at the head of the company even after her son Jean Nicolas Duchesne (1757–1845) came of age. Traditionally, he would have assumed full control of the enterprise at that time, but she worked in partnership with him from 1787 until she died on 25 May 1793.

Legacy During her professional career, which spanned almost 30 years, Marie-Antoinette Duchesne ran one of the most dynamic publishing houses of the time. According to one source, "Her family connections and her ability to surround herself with valuable collaborators apparently reinforced her personal talents that were recognized in her circles. She was referred to as a 'gossip-master' by bookstore inspector Joseph d'Hémery in 1752. In 1767, Voltaire wrote that she was 'the exact and shrewd widow Duchesne.'"