Julia Daudet (1844–1940)

Julia Daudet, née Allard, was born and raised in Paris. Her parents Jules and Léonide Allard loved literature and hosted a popular salon in their home in the Marais. Julia began writing at an early age and published her first collection of poetry at age 17 under the pen name "Marguerite Tournay."
In 1867, she married Alphonse Daudet and became his longtime collaborator; he would later say that there was not a page of his writing that she had not reviewed or edited. Two of their sons, Léon Daudet and Lucien Daudet, also became writers. Julia was also well-known for her own salon in Paris, attended by writers and poets such as Edmond de Goncourt, Hélène Vacaresco, Maurice Barrès, Émile Zola, Édouard Drumont, Rosemonde Gérard-Rostand, Guy de Maupassant, Ernest Renan, Arthur Meyer, Léon Gambetta and Rachilde.
The family also hosted friends at a summer home in Champrosay that is now a cultural center. Julia wrote for many French journals, including for Le Journal officiel as a literary critic under the pseudonym "Karl Steen." She was a member of the jury of the Prix Fémina, which gave her an avenue to continue her literary activity after the death of her husband in 1897.
In 1913, through her son Lucien, who was a good friend of Marcel Proust, she was one of the first readers of the manuscript of À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time). She encouraged Proust to persevere with it at a time when he was doubting his talent, as the novel had been rejected by many publishers. In 1922, she was awarded the Légion d'honneur. She wrote a memoir, L'enfance d'une Parisienne, published in 1883. See her lovely portrait by Pierre-Auguste Renoir.