Louise Compain (also known as Louise Massebiau-Compain; 23 April 1869 – 7 December 1941) was a French novelist, journalist, freelance writer, feminist political activist, social reformer, and suffragist.[1][2] She was the co-initiator of the feminist movement in France in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Biography edit

Mélanie Louise Massebiau was born in Vierzon, France,[3] on 23 April 1869. She was the daughter of Jean Louis Adolphe Massebieau, professor at the Faculty of Protestant Theology in Paris, and Louise Françoise Marie Boissier.

Compain was a member of the French Union for Women's Suffrage. A writer and journalist, she became known at the beginning of the feminist movement by writing successful feminist novels. Compain was a social reformer who supported causes related to women's suffrage, women's unions, and women's labor struggles.[4] According to Charity Organisation Society (London, England, 1899):—[5]

" Compain observes that the humanitarian tendencies of to-day can only attain their end of drawing closer the social bond by really raising the mass of humanity to a higher standard, and that many difficulties would be smoothed away if employers and their dependents stood at a common moral level."

In Paris, October 1888, she married Luc Compain (1864-1889),[6] Associate Professor at the Lycée de Chaumont who died accidentally on 17 November 1889[7] while preparing a thesis on the history of Geoffrey of Vendôme, published posthumously in 1891.

Compain was the aunt of Georgette Hammel (née Roustain; Righteous Among the Nations), the great aunt of the feminist sociologist and writer Évelyne Sullerot, and the resistance activist, Élisabeth Quintenelle.

Compain died in December 1941 in Paris.

Awards edit

  • Academy prize for L'un vers l'autre (1903)[8]

Works edit

  • La Femme dans les organisations ouvrières, 1910
  • La Vie tragique de Geneviève,1912
  • L'Amour de Claire, 1915
  • La Grand' Pitié des Campagnes de France, 1917
  • Les Portes de la vie spirituelle, 1927
  • La Robe déchirée, 1929
  • Calendrier de la vie spirituelle ou les étapes de l'âme, 1938

References edit

Citations edit

  1. ^ Barton & Hopkins 2019, p. 137, 147.
  2. ^ Offen 2018, p. 456.
  3. ^ "Visionneuse" (in French). Archives Départementales du Cher. Retrieved 30 January 2019.
  4. ^ Barton & Hopkins 2019, p. 147.
  5. ^ Charity Organisation Society (London, England) 1899, p. 273.
  6. ^ "Accueil" (in French). Archives de Paris. Retrieved 30 January 2019.
  7. ^ Association des anciens élèves de lettres et sciences humaines des universités de Paris Auteur du (1892). "Bulletin". Gallica (in French). Retrieved 30 January 2019.
  8. ^ Besant 1911, p. 265.

Attribution edit

  •   This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Besant, Sir Walter (1911). The Author (Public domain ed.).
  •   This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Charity Organisation Society (London, England) (1899). The Charity Organisation Review (Public domain ed.). Longmans, Green and Company.

Bibliography edit

External links edit