Marie Louise Lévêque de Vilmorin (4 April 1902 â€" 26 December 1969)
was a French novelist, poet and journalist.Born in the family château
at Verrières-le-Buisson, Essonne, a suburb southwest of Paris, she
was heir to a great French seed company fortune, that of Vilmorin. She
was afflicted with a slight limp that became a personal trademark.
Vilmorin was best known as a writer of delicate but mordant tales,
often set in aristocratic or artistic milieu.Her most famous novel was
Madame de..., published in 1951, which was adapted into the celebrated
film The Earrings of Madame de... (1953), directed by Max Ophüls and
starring Charles Boyer, Danielle Darrieux and Vittorio de Sica.
Vilmorin's other works included Juliette, La lettre dans un taxi, Les
belles amours, Saintes-Unefois, and Intimités. Her letters to Jean
Cocteau were published after the death of both correspondents. She was
awarded the Renée Vivien prize for women poets in 1949.As a young
woman, in 1923, she had been engaged to novelist and aviator Antoine
de Saint-Exupéry; however, the engagement was called off, even though
Saint-Exupéry gave up flying for a while after her family protested
such a risky occupation. Vilmorin's first husband was an American
real-estate heir, Henry Leigh Hunt (1886â€"1972), the only son of
Leigh S. J. Hunt, a businessman who once owned much of Las Vegas,
Nevada by his wife, Jessie Nobel. They married in 1925 (1924 according
to other sources), moved to Las Vegas, and divorced in the 1930s. They
had three daughters: Jessie, Alexandra, and Helena.
was a French novelist, poet and journalist.Born in the family château
at Verrières-le-Buisson, Essonne, a suburb southwest of Paris, she
was heir to a great French seed company fortune, that of Vilmorin. She
was afflicted with a slight limp that became a personal trademark.
Vilmorin was best known as a writer of delicate but mordant tales,
often set in aristocratic or artistic milieu.Her most famous novel was
Madame de..., published in 1951, which was adapted into the celebrated
film The Earrings of Madame de... (1953), directed by Max Ophüls and
starring Charles Boyer, Danielle Darrieux and Vittorio de Sica.
Vilmorin's other works included Juliette, La lettre dans un taxi, Les
belles amours, Saintes-Unefois, and Intimités. Her letters to Jean
Cocteau were published after the death of both correspondents. She was
awarded the Renée Vivien prize for women poets in 1949.As a young
woman, in 1923, she had been engaged to novelist and aviator Antoine
de Saint-Exupéry; however, the engagement was called off, even though
Saint-Exupéry gave up flying for a while after her family protested
such a risky occupation. Vilmorin's first husband was an American
real-estate heir, Henry Leigh Hunt (1886â€"1972), the only son of
Leigh S. J. Hunt, a businessman who once owned much of Las Vegas,
Nevada by his wife, Jessie Nobel. They married in 1925 (1924 according
to other sources), moved to Las Vegas, and divorced in the 1930s. They
had three daughters: Jessie, Alexandra, and Helena.
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