Édith Thomas (23 January 1909 – 7 December 1970) was a French novelist, archivist, historian, and journalist. A

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

pioneer of

women's history Women's history is the study of the role that Woman, women have played in history and Historiography, the methods required to do so. It includes the study of the history of the growth of woman's rights, women's rights throughout recorded history, ...

, she reputedly inspired a character of the erotic novel ''

Story of O ''Story of O'' (, ) is an erotic novel written by French author Anne Desclos under the pen name Pauline Réage, with the original French text published in 1954 by Jean-Jacques Pauvert. Desclos did not reveal herself as the author until 1994, ...

''.Dorothy Kaufmann, ''Édith Thomas, A Passion for Resistance'', Cornell University Press, 2004

Career

Thomas was born in

Montrouge Montrouge () is a Communes of France, commune in the southern Parisian suburbs, located from the centre of Paris. It is one of the most densely populated municipalities in Europe. After a long period of decline, the population has increased agai ...

, and studied at the

École des chartes École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * Éco ...

, from which she graduated in 1931. In 1933, her first novel, ''La Mort de Marie'' (Mary's Death), was awarded the '' Prix du Premier Roman''. A few years later she quit her job to become a journalist at ''Ce Soir'', a left-wing evening newspaper close to the Popular Front government. She also contributed to various magazines (''Vendredi'', ''

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

'', ''

Regards ''Regards'' (also known as ''Regards Magazine'' or ''Revue Regards'', ''trans'': "Views") is a monthly French Communist news magazine published in Paris, France. History and profile Created in 1932 as a Communist title, ''Regards'' is primari ...

'') for which she covered the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

on the Republican side. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, she joined the Résistance and became a member of the

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (, , PCF) is a Communism, communist list of political parties in France, party in France. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its Member of the European Parliament, MEPs sit with The Left in the ...

in 1942. She wrote a series of short stories under male pseudonyms (Jean Le Guern, Auxois), published on clandestine press by '' Les Editions de Minuit'' in 1943, under the title ''Contes d'Auxois''. After the War, she returned to her first profession and took a position as curator at the Archives nationales. She then became a pioneer of

in France, working mainly on feminism during the 19th century and on significant female figures such as

Joan of Arc Joan of Arc ( ; ; – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the Coronation of the French monarch, coronation of Charles VII o ...

, Pauline Roland,

Louise Michel Louise Michel (; 29 May 1830 – 9 January 1905) was a teacher and prominent figure during the Paris Commune. Following her penal transportation to New Caledonia she began to embrace anarchism, and upon her return to France she emerged as an im ...

and

George Sand Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil (; 1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), best known by her pen name George Sand (), was a French novelist, memoirist and journalist. Being more renowned than either Victor Hugo or Honoré de Balz ...

. She left the Communist Party in 1949. Thomas died in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in 1970, at the age of 61.

Personal life

Although Thomas declared herself heterosexual, she had her most enduring affair with a woman. In 1946, aged 37, she met translator and editor Anne Desclos, aged 39, through literary critic and publisher Jean Paulhan, director of the prestigious literary magazine ''

Nouvelle Revue Française ''La Nouvelle Revue Française'' (; "The New French Review") is a literary magazine based in France. In France, it is often referred to as the ''NRF''. History and profile The magazine was founded in 1909 by a group of intellectuals including And ...

''. Paulhan and Thomas had met at the beginning of the War, and both had been members of the ''Comité national des écrivains'' (Writers' National Committee), an intellectual Résistance group led by

Louis Aragon Louis Aragon (; 3 October 1897 – 24 December 1982) was a French poet who was one of the leading voices of the Surrealism, surrealist movement in France. He co-founded with André Breton and Philippe Soupault the surrealist review ''Littératur ...

. Desclos, a

, was Paulhan's employee and lover. The two women began having a passionate liaison. In 1954, Paulhan, an admirer of the

Marquis de Sade Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade ( ; ; 2 June 1740 – 2 December 1814) was a French writer, libertine, political activist and nobleman best known for his libertine novels and imprisonment for sex crimes, blasphemy and pornography ...

, made to Desclos the remark that no woman was capable of writing an erotic novel. To prove him wrong, Desclos wrote a graphic,

sadomasochistic Sadism () and masochism (), known collectively as sadomasochism ( ) or S&M, is the derivation of pleasure from acts of respectively inflicting or receiving pain or humiliation. The term is named after the Marquis de Sade, a French author known ...

novel as a series of love letters to him. Prompted by Paulhan, she agreed to publish it under the pen name Pauline Réage. Titled ''

'' (''Histoire d'O.''), it sparked off huge controversy and was an enormous commercial success. After much speculation, Desclos publicly admitted that she was the author only 40 years later, and suggested that Thomas inspired her to create some characters, especially the one of Anne-Marie.

Works

*''La mort de Marie.'' Gallimard, 1934, OCLC 12261585

Works in English

*'' The Women Incendiaries'', G. Braziller, 1966 OCLC 401383 **''The Women Incendiaries'', Translators James Atkinson, Starr Atkinson, Haymarket Books, 2007, *''Eve and the Others'', Continental Editions, 1976, *''

'', Gallimard, 1971; Black Rose Books, 1980

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Edith 1909 births 1970 deaths People from Montrouge École Nationale des Chartes alumni French archivists French communists French socialist feminists French women historians French women novelists French women journalists French LGBTQ novelists French LGBTQ journalists French bisexual women French bisexual writers Bisexual women writers Bisexual novelists Bisexual journalists Communist women writers Women archivists 20th-century French women writers 20th-century French novelists 20th-century French journalists 20th-century French historians 20th-century French LGBTQ people