Mademoiselle de Saint-Léger (1761–1824)

Anne-Hyacinthe Geille de Saint-Léger, known as Mademoiselle de Saint-Léger, was born in Paris, the daughter of Catherine and Charles Geille de Saint-Léger, a French court physician. She received a comparatively modern education. She was taken to the theater in Paris from a young age and began writing at age 12. She published her debut book, an epistolary novel called Lettres du chevalier de Saint-Alme et de Mlle de Melcourt, in 1781, at age 20. It received rave reviews and is still her best-known work. It was followed by more fiction, and she also contributed poems to various French periodicals. She's also called by her married name, Anne-Hyacinthe de Colleville, although the date of her marriage is unknown. She also had popular success with two one-act comedies, until the French Revolution interrupted her theatrical career. Afterwards, she returned to writing novels. In 1806, she published Salut à Messieurs les maris, the last novel that can be attributed to her with certainty. Toward the end of her life, she became religious and burned her last manuscript.