Camille Marbo

Camille Marbo
Camille Marbo en 1937, photo Agence de presse Meurisse.
Born	Marguerite Borel 11 April 1883
Died	5 February 1969(1969-02-05) (aged 85)

Camille Marbo, (11 April 1883 – 5 février 1969) née Marguerite Appell, was a 20th-century French writer, mostly a novelist, laureate of the Prix Femina in 1913, president of the Société des gens de lettres, and president of the prix Femina.

Biography

Berthe Elisabeth Marguerite Appell was the daughter of mathematician Paul Appell (1855–1930).

In 1901, she married the mathematician and politician Emile Borel (1871–1956). Marguerite Borel held a lively scientific and literary salon.

Cover of volume I of La Revue du mois January–June 1906.

In 1906, she created with her husband La Revue du mois where contributed their scientific friends and political or literary personalities appreciating this magazine which offered them the opportunity to choose their subjects and freedom of expression. This monthly was a notable success. Marguerite Borel took personally charge of the critics of plays and novels, and various chronicles.

When she began to write novels, she chose the pseudonym Camille Marbo, the name Marbo taking the first letters of her first name Marguerite and her name Borel.

In 1913, Camille Marbo was awarded the prix Femina, then called Prix de la Vie heureuse, for her first novel la Statue voilée.

During the First World War, she set up with her father the Comité de secours national. She also founded and ran a temporary hospital in Paris, which earned her the médaille de la Reconnaissance française.^[1] The authorities asked her in 1916 to participate in the organization of women's work in place of the men who had gone to the front. Benefiting from her experience as head of the hospital, she created a recruitment center for women, which auditioned, tested and placed both salaried employees and volunteers in the services sector.^[2]More than 20,000 women were thus placed in his care. The treaty she published in 1919, "Mobilization féminine en France", documents the contribution of these women to the Allied victory.^[3] This document is precious because of its unique content as well as its methodical and professional form, free from the emotion that was too common at the time; It is carefully contextualized and enriched with statistics.^[4]

She then wrote about forty other novels, some monographs and memoirs.

A friend of Marie Curie, she welcomed her to her home and protected her during the "affaire Langevin", revelation made by the press of an extramarital affair between Marie Curie and Paul Langevin.

Marguerite Borel took part in the political life of Saint-Affrique and participates in the electoral campaigns of her husband Émile Borel. She was deputy mayor of Saint-Affrique from 1947 to 1954.

In February 1928, Camille Marbo succeeded Mme Jean Dornis as president of the Denier des veuves de la SGDL, an assistance work to the widows of writers devoid of resources founded in 1913 by Daniel Lesueur, aided and supported by Georges Lecomte (president of the SGDL).

She became president of the Société des gens de lettres in 1937. She was re-elected in 1938 and again after the Liberation in 1947. She was also a member of the jury of the Prix Femina and became its president.

She published her memoirs in 1967 under the title À travers deux siècles, souvenirs et rencontres (1883-1967).

Died in 1969, she was a Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur.

Works

Camille Marbo in 1937, president of the Société des gens de lettres.

Distinctions

• Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur.
• Prix Femina, then called Prix de la Vie heureuse, 1913.
• Médaille de la Reconnaissance française.

References

Bibliography

• "Camille Marbo", in Nouveau Dictionnaire national des contemporains, Paris, 1962, vol. 1, p.579.
• Mary Ellen Ross (2009). "Marguerite Borel/ Camille Marbo: The Government's feminist". French and francophone women facing war (in French). Berne: Peter Lang. pp. 69–84. ISBN 3039113321. Ross2009.  Read online.
• Mémoires : À travers deux siècles, souvenirs et rencontres (1883–1967), Paris, Éditions Grasset, 1967.

See also

• Émile Borel
• Prix Femina
• Société des gens de lettres

External links

• Camille Marbo on the site of the Académie française
• Biographie
• Notice on Tombes et sépultures
• Jeux de la science et de l'amour première partie on Revue des Deux Mondes