Lucie Delarue-Mardrus

Who was Lucie Delarue-Mardrus?

Lucie Delarue-Mardrus was a French journalist, poet, novelist, sculptor, historian and designer. She was a prolific writer who produced more than 70 books.

In France, she is best known for her poem beginning with the line "L'odeur de mon pays était dans une pomme" Her writings express her love of travel and her love for her native Normandy. L'Ex-voto, for example, describes the life and milieu of the fishermen of Honfleur at the opening of the twentieth century.

She was married to the translator J. C. Mardrus from 1900 to 1915, but her primary sexual orientation was toward women. She was involved in affairs with several women throughout her lifetime, and she wrote extensively of lesbian love.

In 1902-03 she wrote a series of love poems to the American writer and salon hostess Natalie Clifford Barney, published posthumously in 1957 as Nos secrètes amours. She also depicted Barney in her 1930 novel, L'Ange et les Pervers, in which she said she "analyzed and described Natalie at length as well as the life into which she initiated me".