Dominique Aury(1907-1998)

Dominique Aury, a French writer, translator, editor, and journalist who received the Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur. She was born in 1907, abandoned at birth by her mother, and raised by her paternal grandmother. After completing her studies she worked in publishing and translating, where she gained the respect of many prominent French intellectuals. She wrote the novel "Story of O", later adapted as The Story of O (1975) for Jean Paulhan, a member of the Academie Francaise, thirty years her senior whom, she feared, was losing interest in her after many years of their love affair. Paulhan loved the novel, did not lose interest in her, wrote a preface for the book, and got it published simultaneously in French and English under a pen name. The book's authorship remained a secret. Aury meanwhile continued her productive, purposeful, intellectual life, despite the firestorm of controversy her novel provoked. A sequel did not fare as well as the original novel. In 1992 Aury consented to interviews and verified her authorship of 'O", ending a guessing game that had lasted forty years.