Marie Chaix

Marie Chaix (née Beugras; 3 February 1942) is a French writer. She has written memoirs and a book about the singer Barbara. Her memoirs are about her mother and father as well as her life. Her book The Laurels of Lake Constance won the Prix Maison de la Presse in 1974.

Early life and family Chaix was born on 3 February 1942 in Lyon; her father was Albert Beugras who was a leader of the fascist French Popular Party. Her mother was named Alice and she had three siblings, including singer Anne Sylvestre. The family had a servant named Juliette that she considered to be her second mother.

Chaix's next book was a memoir about her mother titled Silences, or a Woman’s Life. One of Chaix's novels was rejected by Éditions du Seuil and the publisher did not allow her to rewrite it because they believed that she could only write autobiographies. In 1986, Alain Oulman became Chaix's editor for a book about the singer Barbara and Chaix thought of him as being "closer than a lover". Oulman died in 1990, a month after the book was published, which caused Chaix to not write for a decade. Her book The Summer of the Elder Tree was published by Dalkey Archive Press and translated by her later husband Harry Mathews. The Summer of the Elder Tree is about Chaix's decade-long break from writing and the places that she went to while writing The Laurels of Lake Constance, including an island that her father and brother were at during World War II.

Personal life She married journalist Jean-François Chaix in 1968 and they had a child named Émilie in 1969.