renown was Rosa Bonheur who had a young
womn near her during all her life.

Gertrude Stein lived 50 years with her devoted
Alice Toklas. Marg. Yourcenar, our 1rst  wmn French Academ.
never married and she too had a devoted Muse.

To escape misogyny, other wmn were com-
pelled to publish under masc. names. The 3
Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Ann and Emily saw their
first novels rejected and succeeded only when they
propose the same books, pretending they were
3 brothers : Currer Acton and Ellis Bell.

Gyp - Delly. Daniel Stern

The other womn, the majority, had to choose
between ther ambition and their family.

In 1819 Stendhal warned them very pertinently.
"To publish for a wmn is to risk her happiness in a most
cruel lottery : if she has a companion, the 1rst thing she can
expect is losing him - and he concluded : All the geniuses
that were born in a female body have been, up to now,
lost for humanity."

A typical example - and recent - of society 's ill
will to any type of feminine creation is Colette.
Until the 70 ies she was better known in foreign
countries than in France. (U.S. - Japan) Because
of the "perfume of scandal" surrounding her
first novel, she was only considered as a feminine
writer with perverse tastes, essentially interested in
animals and gardens. Most histories of French
litt. of the XX th cy don't even mention her name,
though her works fill 30 thick volumes. The
last one, by Pierre de Boisdeffre, refers to her as