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.

Marcelle Auclair
Born11 November 1899
Montluçon
Died6 June 1983(1983-06-06) (aged 83)
Paris
Occupation
  • Novelist
  • biographer
  • journalist
  • poet
NationalityFrench
Period1919–1979
Subjectreligion, biography, fashion

Biography

Marcelle Auclair was born 11 November 1899 in Montluçon, central France, and died in Paris on 6 June 1984.[1][2] She was the daughter of the architect Victor Auclair and his wife Eugénie Rateau. She spent part of her childhood and youth in Chile, where her father settled in 1906 to participate in the country's reconstruction after a devastating earthquake. She did her schooling in Santiago (Chile), where she also learned Spanish and English while reading French authors.[2]

Returning to France in 1923, she married the writer Jean Prévost (m. April 28, 1926), with whom she had three children (Michel, Françoise, and Alain).[2][3]: 21  They divorced in 1938.[2]: 318 

Literary and journalistic contributions
Subjects of Biographies by Marcelle Auclair
 
Jean Jaurès (1859–1914)
St. Teresa of Avila (1515–1582)
 
St. Bernadette of Lourdes (1844–1879)
Federico García Lorca (1898–1936)

Auclair published biographies of two Roman Catholic saints, Teresa of Avila (1950)[4] and Bernadette of Lourdes (1957).[5] She also published biographies of Spanish poet and playwright Federico García Lorca, whom she knew personally (1968),[6][7] and of the early 20th century pro-peace French socialist Jean Jaurès (1954).[8]

Auclair's first original publication[9] was Transparence, a book of original poetry in Spanish, published when she was 20 years old, and living in Santiago, Chile.[10] Another early publication, in French, was Auclair's novel, Toya, published in 1927.[11]

In 1937, Auclair and Jean Prouvost founded the fashion magazine Marie Claire.[2][12] Auclair wrote many articles for Marie Claire, extending over a period of several years. In A History of Private Life (1991),[13] writing about Auclair's time as a columnist for the magazine Marie Claire, Antoine Prost stated that

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.[13]: 138 

In the 1950s, Auclair published two popular books on how to lead a happy life, Le bonheur est en vous (1951) and La Pratique du bonheur (1956).[14]

In 1953, Auclair published a French-language children's book about the life of Jesus.[15] The book was republished in English translation in both the US[16] and the UK.[17]

Auclair's translation of the complete works of Teresa of Avila from Spanish to French was first published in 1964.[18]

At age 78, five years before her death, Auclair published an autobiographical work with her daughter, actress Françoise Prévost.[19]

In European Literary Heritage,[20] 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]."[20]: 279 

Selected works

Translated into English
  • Auclair, Marcelle (1988). Saint Teresa of Avila. Translation by Kathleen Pond (Reprint; Originally published: New York: Pantheon, 1953 ed.). Petersham, MA: St. Bede's Publications. ISBN 978-0-932506-67-2. OCLC 18292197.(457 pages)
  • Auclair, Marcelle (1958). Bernadette, 1858-1958. Translation by Kathryn Sullivan (1st English ed.). Purchase, NY: Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart. OCLC 4443930. (204 pages)
  • French original: Auclair, Marcelle (1957). Bernadette. Paris, France: Blond et Gay. OCLC 1956348. (284 pages)
  • Auclair, Marcelle (1961). Christ's Image. Translation by Lionel Izod. New York: Tudor. OCLC 894701. (139 pages)
  • French original: Auclair, Marcelle (1957). Images du Christ. Paris, France: Éditions Sun. OCLC 459435674. (144 pages)

French, untranslated into English

Children's books
  • Auclair, Marcelle (1953). La Bonne Nouvelle annoncée aux enfants. Illustrations by Jacqueline L. Gaillard. Paris, France: Éditions du Seuil. OCLC 458544529. (126 pages)
  • English edition (US): Auclair, Marcelle (1954). The Little Friends of Jesus. Translation by Mary Gehr. Chicago, IL: Chicago, Henry Regnery Co. OCLC 3684033. (93 pages). Translation of La bonne nouvelle annoncee aux enfants
  • English edition (UK): Auclair, Marcelle (1954). The Good News told to Children. Illustrations by Jacqueline L. Gaillard. London, UK: Burns & Oates. OCLC 52073421. (125 pages)

References
  1. "AUCLAlR (Marcelle), née à Montluçon le 11 novembre 1899; fille du précédent.... Marcelle Auclair a publié des biographies: La Vie de Sainte Thérèse d'Avila (1950), La Vie de Jean Jaurès (1954), ... Décédée à Paris le 6 juin 1983" (p. 265). In: Rougeron, Georges [in French] (1987). Histoire de Commentry et des Commentryens. Editions des Cahiers bourbonnais. OCLC 462200016. (285 pages).
  2. "Avec Jean Prouvost, Marcelle Auclair fonda « Marie-Claire » magazine féminin inspiré des magazines américains.... Décédée à Paris le 6 juin 1983, elle est inhumée dans l'Essonne auprès de son père" (p. 318). In: Touret, André (2005). Destins d'Allier: 1945-2000: population et économie, les grands événements et l'évolution de l'opinion, portraits. Éditions Créer. ISBN 978-2-84819-058-7. OCLC 2418285. (351 pages).
  3. Merwin, William Stanley (2005). Summer Doorways: A Memoir. Emeryville, CA: Shoemaker & Hoard. ISBN 1-59376-072-8.
  4. Auclair, Marcelle (1950). La vie de Sainte Thérèse d'Avila, la Dame Errante de Dieu. Paris, France: Éditions du Seuil. OCLC 4154440. (493 pages)
  5. Auclair, Marcelle (1957). Bernadette. Paris, France: Blond et Gay. OCLC 1956348. (284 pages)
  6. Auclair, Marcelle (1968). Enfances et mort de Garcia Lorca. Paris, France: Éditions du Seuil. OCLC 598851. (477 pages)
  7. David K. Loughran (1975). "Untitled [review of Enfances et mort de Garcia Lorca, by Marcelle Auclair]". Modern Language Notes. Johns Hopkins University Press. 90 (2): 320–321. doi:10.2307/2906877. ISSN 0026-7910. JSTOR 2906877.
  8. Auclair, Marcelle (1954). La Vie de Jean Jaurès, ou, La France d'Avant 1914. Paris, France: Éditions du Seuil. OCLC 4444343. (673 pages)
  9. Earlier, in 1917, she is credited with having presented a 16-page paper, Heredia: Conferencia leída en la Biblioteca Nacional OCLC 55386568 (16 pages).
  10. Auclair, Marcelle (1919). Transparence (in Spanish). Illustrations by Laureano Guevara. Prologue by Paulino Alfonso. Santiago de Chile: Imprenta universitaria. OCLC 55322025. (95 pages).
  11. Toya, OCLC 7646823
  12. "Lancé por Jean Prouvost en 1937, le principal acteur de ce renouvellement porte le (prè)nom Marie Claire. Placèe sous la direction de Marcelle Auclair et de Pierre Bost, cette publication qui recourt volontiers au ton de la confidence, s’adresse à l’ensemble des femmes et non plu à la seule bourgeoisie." (p. 65). In: Leenaerts, Danielle (2010). Petite Histoire Du Magazine Vu (1928-1940): Entre Photographie D'Information Et Photographie D'Art. Bruxelles: Peter Lang. ISBN 978-90-5201-585-9. OCLC 690329730. (403 pages).
  13. Antoine Prost (1991). "Public and Private Spheres in France". In: Prost, Antoine [in French]; Gérard Vincent [in French] (1991). A History of Private Life: Riddles of Identity in Modern Times. Translation by Arthur Goldhammer. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. pp. 1–143. ISBN 0-674-40004-6.. Translation of Histoire de la privée. Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1987.
  14. Le bonheur est en vous (1951) and La Pratique du bonheur (1956).
  15. Auclair, Marcelle (1953). La Bonne Nouvelle annoncée aux enfants. Illustrations by Jacqueline L. Gaillard. Paris, France: Éditions du Seuil. OCLC 458544529. (126 pages)
  16. Auclair, Marcelle (1954). The Little Friends of Jesus. Translation by Mary Gehr. Chicago, IL: Chicago, Henry Regnery Co. OCLC 3684033. (93 pages). Translation of La bonne nouvelle annoncee aux enfants
  17. Auclair, Marcelle (1954). The Good News told to Children. Illustrations by Jacqueline L. Gaillard. London, UK: Burns & Oates. OCLC 52073421. (125 pages)
  18. Teresa of Avila, Oeuvres complètes (Marcelle Auclair, trans.). First edition, in one volume (Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1964): Œuvres complètes OCLC 490121140 (1177 pages). Fifth edition in two volumes (Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 2007): Oeuvres complètes, vol. I, ISBN 978-2-220-05871-9, OCLC 470554927 (pp. 605 pages); vol. II, ISBN 978-2-220-05890-0, OCLC 470797319 (pp. 610-1177).
  19. Auclair, Marcelle; Françoise Prevost (1978). Mémoires à Deux Voix. Paris, France: Éditions du Seuil. ISBN 978-2-02-004872-9. OCLC 4521893. (429 pages)
  20. "Marcelle (Auclair)" (pp. 279-280) in: Polet, Jean-Claude [in French] (2000). Patrimoine littéraire européen: anthologie en langue française. Bruxelles: De Boeck Université. pp. 279–280. ISBN 978-2-8041-3162-3. (600 pages) (vol 13 of Patrimoine littéraire européen: anthologie en langue française, published 1992-2000, ISSN 0779-4673, OCLC 28010160)
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