Louise Leveque de Vilmorin
Encyclopedia
Louise Lévêque de Vilmorin (4 April 1902 – 26 December 1969) was a French novelist, poet and journalist.

Born in the family château at Verrières-le-Buisson
Verrières-le-Buisson
Verrières-le-Buisson is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is from the center of Paris, in the Essonne department just outside the inner ring of the Île-de-France.The commune borders the Bièvre River....

, Essonne
Essonne
Essonne is a French department in the region of Île-de-France. It is named after the Essonne River.It was formed on 1 January 1968 when Seine-et-Oise was split into smaller departments.- History :...

, a suburb southwest of Paris, she was heir to a great French seed company fortune, that of Vilmorin
Vilmorin
Vilmorin is a French seed producer. Along with its international subsidiaries, the company considers itself to be the fourth largest seed company in the world...

. 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...
The Earrings of Madame de...
The Earrings of Madame de... is a 1953 drama film directed by Max Ophüls. It was adapted from Louise Leveque de Vilmorin's period novel.This film is considered as a masterpiece of the 1950s French cinema....

(1953), directed by Max Ophüls
Max Ophüls
Maximillian Oppenheimer — known as Max Ophüls — was an influential German-born film director who worked in Germany , France , the United States , and France again...

 and starring Charles Boyer
Charles Boyer
Charles Boyer was a French actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving an education in drama, Boyer started on the stage, but he found success in movies during the 1930s. His memorable performances were among the era's most highly praised romantic dramas,...

, Danielle Darrieux
Danielle Darrieux
Danielle Yvonne Marie Antoinette Darrieux is a French actress and singer, who has appeared in more than 110 films since 1931. She is one of France's great movie stars and her eight-decade career is among the longest in film history....

 and Vittorio de Sica
Vittorio de Sica
Vittorio De Sica was an Italian director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement....

. Vilmorin's other works included Juliette, La lettre dans un taxi, Les belles amours, Saintes-Unefois, and Intimités. Her letters to Jean Cocteau
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...

 were published after the death of both correspondents.

As a young woman, in 1923, she had been engaged to novelist and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry , officially Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, comte de Saint Exupéry , was a French writer, poet and pioneering aviator. He became a laureate of France's highest literary awards, and in 1939 was the winner of the U.S. National Book Award...

. Vilmorin's first husband was an American real-estate heir, Henry Leigh Hunt (1886–1972). They married in 1925, moved to Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...

, where Hunt's family owned extensive properties, and divorced in the 1930s. They had three daughters: Jessie, Alexandra, and Helena.

Her second husband was Count Paul Pálffy ab Erdöd (1890–1968), a much-married Austrian-born Hungarian playboy, who had been second husband to the Hungarian countess better known as Etti Plesch
Etti Plesch
Etti Plesch, , Austro-Hungarian countess, huntress, racehorse owner and socialite. Plesch lost two of her six husbands to the same woman, Louise de Vilmorin, a French literary figure, and owned two winners of the Epsom Derby, in Psidium in 1961 and Henbit in1980.Born Maria Anna Paula Ferdinandine...

, owner of two Epsom Derby winners. Palffy married Louise as his fifth wife in 1938, but the couple soon divorced.

Vilmorin was the mistress of another of Etti Plesch's husbands, Count [Maria Thomas] Paul Esterházy de Galántha (1901–1964), who left his wife in 1942 for Vilmorin. They never married. For a number of years, she was the mistress of Duff Cooper
Duff Cooper
Alfred Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich GCMG, DSO, PC , known as Duff Cooper, was a British Conservative Party politician, diplomat and author. He wrote six books, including an autobiography, Old Men Forget, and a biography of Talleyrand...

, British ambassador to France. Louise spent the last years of her life as the companion of the French Cultural Affairs Minister and author André Malraux
André Malraux
André Malraux DSO was a French adventurer, award-winning author, and statesman. Having traveled extensively in Indochina and China, Malraux was noted especially for his novel entitled La Condition Humaine , which won the Prix Goncourt...

, calling herself "Marilyn Malraux".

Francis Poulenc
Francis Poulenc
Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and a member of the French group Les six. He composed solo piano music, chamber music, oratorio, choral music, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music...

 literally sang her praises, considering her an equal to Paul Éluard
Paul Éluard
Paul Éluard, born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel , was a French poet who was one of the founders of the surrealist movement.-Biography:...

 and Max Jacob
Max Jacob
Max Jacob was a French poet, painter, writer, and critic.-Life and career:After spending his childhood in Quimper, Brittany, France, he enrolled in the Paris Colonial School, which he left in 1897 for an artistic career...

, found in her writing "a sort of sensitive impertinence, libertinage
Libertine
A libertine is one devoid of most moral restraints, which are seen as unnecessary or undesirable, especially one who ignores or even spurns accepted morals and forms of behavior sanctified by the larger society. Libertines, also known as rakes, placed value on physical pleasures, meaning those...

, and an appetite which, carried on into song [is] what I tried to express in my extreme youth with Marie Laurencin
Marie Laurencin
Marie Laurencin was a French painter and printmaker. -Biography:Laurencin was born in Paris, where she was raised by her mother and lived much of her life. At 18, she studied porcelain painting in Sèvres...

 in Les Biches." (Ivry 1996)

See also

  • Philippe André de Vilmorin
    Philippe André de Vilmorin
    Pierre-Philippe-André Levêque de Vilmorin , more commonly known as Philippe André de Vilmorin, was a notable French horticulturist....

     (1776–1862)
  • Louis de Vilmorin
    Louis de Vilmorin
    Pierre Louis François Lévêque de Vilmorin , usually referred to as Louis de Vilmorin, the grandson of Philippe André de Vilmorin, and a member of the family firm of Vilmorin-Andrieux, devoted his life to biology and chemistry, with a focus on the breeding and cultivation of plants.Louis de Vilmorin...

     (1816–1860)
  • Joseph-Marie-Philippe Lévêque de Vilmorin
    Joseph-Marie-Philippe Lévêque de Vilmorin
    Joseph-Marie-Philippe Lévêque de Vilmorin , generally known as Philippe de Vilmorin, was a noted French botanist and plant collector, and a member of the celebrated Vilmorin family of horticulturists....

     (1872–1917)
  • Le Lit à colonnes
    Le Lit à colonnes
    Le Lit à colonnes is a French drama film from 1942, directed by Roland Tual, written by Charles Spaak, starring Fernand Ledoux and Jean Marais. The scenario was based on a novel of Louise de Vilmorin...

     (1942 film)
  • Julietta (1953 film)
    Julietta (1953 film)
    Julietta is a French comedy comedy romance film from 1953, directed by Marc Allégret, written by Françoise Giroud, starring Dany Robin and Jean Marais. Film was based on a novel of Louise de Vilmorin...

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