Colette, Gabrielle

French author, born in Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye in Bourgogne. Her real name was Sidonie Gabrielle Colette, but as an author she only used her last name. When twenty years old, she married Henri Gauthier-Villars, a fifteen year older critic of literature and music. After their divorce, she was for some time active as a dancer and vaudeville artist. Between 1910 and 1923, Colette wrote reviews and short stories for the newspaper Le Matin. In 1912, she married the editor-in-chief, Henry de Jouvenel, and they had a daughter together. They separated in 1924. According to the gossip of the time, the reason for the separation was infidelity on both sides but above all a relationship between Colette and de Jouvenel's son. In 1925, she met Maurice Goudeket, a Jewish pearl trader. They married in 1935. During the German occupation of France in the Second World War, she helped him to hide.