Edmée de La Rochefoucauld

Edmée Frisch de Fels was born in Paris, France on April 28, 1895, the daughter of Edmund, Comte de Fels, director of the Revue de Paris,[1] and Comtesse de Fels, née Jeanne Lebaudy, who was a founder of the Union Nationale pour le Vote des Femmes (UNVF). On December 27, 1917 she married Jean, Duc de La Rochefoucauld,[2] heir to La Rochefoucauld ducal title.[3] They had two sons and two daughters.[3]

De La Rochefoucauld was a Catholic leader in French women’s efforts to win the right to vote. She became an officer in the UNVF in 1927 and became its president in 1930.[3]

For more than 60 years she was also a central figure in French world of letters, publishing her first book Fonction de X in 1926.[3] In 1938, she reported on Spanish Civil War. In 1944, she became a member of jury for the Prix Fémina.[3] In the 1950s she published studies of Anna de Noailles, poet Leon-Paul Fargue, Yvan Goll, and Paul Valéry.[3] She also assisted her brother André de Fels who had become publisher of Revue de Paris, from 1961 to 1970.[3] She was elected to the Belgian Royal Academy of the French Language and Literature in 1962 and later that decade published a guide to Cahiers of Paul Valéry (1964–1966).[3] She was a commander of the French Legion of Honor.[1]

She published last book in 1989, at age 94.[3] It was the final installment in her three-volume memoir entitled Flashes.

She died in Paris on September 20, 1991.[3] She was 96.

Beginning in 1990, the Prix Edmée-de-La-Rochefoucauld is awarded annually to a first-time novelist. As of 2020, the prize included an award of 3000 Euros.[4]

• Nombres (1926)
• Faust et Marguerites (1927)
• La Vie humaine (1928)
• Spanish Women (1938)
• La Femme et ses droits (1939)
• Les Moralistes de l'intelligence (1945)
• La Vie commode aux peuples (1947)
• Vus d'un autre monde (1950)
• Plus loin que Bételgeuse (1952)
• Choix de poèmes (1955)
• Menton (1962)
• La Nature et l'esprit (1965)
• Femmes dramaturges (1968)
• Courts Métrages (1970)
• Spectateurs (1972)
• L'Acquiescement (1978)
• Courts Métrages II (1980)
• Flashes (3 vols., 1982–89)