Colette, properly Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, also known as Colette Willy 1873-1954
French novelist

She was born in Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye, Burgundy. Her early novels, the Claudine series, were published by her first husband, Henri Gauthier-Villars, under his pen name 'Willy'. From 1904 (the end of their collaboration) to 1916 she wrote under the name 'Colette Willy'. After their divorce in 1906 she appeared in music-halls in dance and mime, and out of this period came L'Envers du music-hall (1913, Eng trans Music-Hall Sidelights, 1957). Keenly perceptive, and writing in a musical, mellifluous prose, she writes with an intense, sensual responsiveness to the world of nature and to her childhood. Her novels include Ch�ri (1920, Eng trans 1929), La Fin de Ch�ri (1926, Eng trans The Last of Ch�ri, 1932), La Chatte (1933, Eng trans The Cat, 1936) and Gigi (1944, Eng trans 1953). She was the first woman to be made president of the Acad�mie Goncourt.

Bibliography: J Richardson, Colette (1983)