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On January 22, 1981, Marguerite Yourcenartook her place in literary history when she became first woman – and therefore the first lesbian – to be admitted to the French Academy since its founding in 1635.
One quote from Ms. Yourcenar that I found pretty amazing is also one my best man Jack Der read for me at our wedding ceremony. It refers to her lifetime companion, Grace Frick. Here it is:
“Even the longest dedication is too short and too commonplace to honour a friendship so uncommon…in the entire life of some fortunate writers, there must have been someone who…bolsters our courage… approves, or sometimes disputes, our ideas … who shares with us, and with equal fervour, the joys of art and living…someone who is neither our shadow nor our reflection, nor even our complement, but simply himself (sic) someone who leaves us ideally free, but who nevertheless obliges us to be fully what we are.”
