Geneviève Fauconnier (1886–1969)

Geneviève Fauconnier was borne in Barbezieux-Saint-Hilaire, in southwestern France. She was a member of the literary circle called the Groupe de Barbezieux, which included her brother Henri and some of their childhood friends. In 1910, Henri Fauconnier invited his sister to settle with him at his successful rubber plantation in Malaysia. There she met and married René Van den Berg, a Belgian planter, with whom she had five (some sources say seven) children. After World War I, they went to live in Fontenay-aux-Roses, a suburb of Paris. Her husband opened a small publishing house and bookshop in Montparnasse through which the couple met many writers and painters. In 1926, Geneviève moved to the old family estate of Cru, near Montlieu en Saintonge, where she farmed and continued to write novels, memoirs, and children's books. She won the Prix Femina in 1933 with her novel Claude. In 1964, she became a founding member of a cultural association called the Académie d'Angoumois.