Louise Levêque de Vilmorin (4 April 1904-26 December 1969) was a French woman of letters: novelist, poet, journalist. April 4 is the 94th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (95th in leap years). ... 1904 is a leap year starting on a Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... December 26 is the 360th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, 361st in leap years. ... 1969 was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1969 calendar). ...

Born in the family chateau at Verrières-le-Buisson, a suburb southwest of Paris, she was the scion of a great French seed company fortune and afflicted with a slight limp that became a personal trademark. Vilmorin was best known as a writer of delicate but mordant tales, often set in aristocratic or artistic milieus. Her most famous novel was "Madame de", published in 1951, which was made into a celebrated film in 1953 starring Charles Boyer and Danielle Darrieux and directed by Vittorio de Sica. Vilmorin's other works included "Juliette," "La lettre dans un taxi," "Les belles amours," "Saintes-Une fois," and "Intimités." Verrières-le-Buisson is a commune of the Essonne département, a suburb of Paris, in France. ... Charles Boyer in Love Affair Charles Boyer ( August 28, 1897 – August 26, 1978) was a French actor. ... Danielle Darrieux Danielle Darrieux (born May 1, 1917) is a French singer and actress. ... Vittorio De Sica (July 7, 1901 - November 13, 1974) was an Italian neorealist director and actor. ...

Her letters to Jean Cocteau were published to acclaim, after the deaths of both correspondents. Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (July 5, 1889 – October 11, 1963) was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, and filmmaker. ...

As a young woman, in 1923, she had been engaged to the novelist and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Vilmorin's first husband was an American real-estate heir, Henry Leigh Hunt (1886-1972). They married in 1925, moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, where Hunt's family owned extensive properties, and divorced in 1937 (1936 per another site). They had three daughters: Jessie, Alexandra, and Helena. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in Toulouse Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (June 29, 1900 – July 31, 1944) was a French writer and aviator. ... Sign just to the south of the Las Vegas Strip welcoming visitors to the city Las Vegas from U.S. Highway 93 Las Vegas is the largest city in Nevada and a major tourist, shopping, vacation and gambling destination. ... 1937 was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1936 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Her second husband was Count Paul Pálffy ab Erdöd (1890-1968), a much-married Austrian-born Slovakian playboy, who had been second husband to the Hungarian countess better known as Etti Plesch, owner of two Epsom Derby winners. Palffy married Louise as his fifth wife in 1938, but the couple soon divorced. Etti Plesch, (February 3, 1914 - April 29, 2003), Austrian countess, Hungarian countess, huntress, racehorse owner and socialite. ...

Vilmorin was the mistress of another of Etti Plesch's husbands Graf Maria Thomas Paul Esterházy de Galántha (1901-1964), who left his wife in 1942 for Vilmorin. They never married. For a number of years, she was the mistress of Duff Cooper, the British ambassador to France. Louise ended her life as the companion of the French statesman André Malraux. Alfred Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich (22 February 1890 - 1 January 1954), known universally as Duff Cooper, was a British diplomat, Cabinet member and acclaimed author. ... André Malraux, French author, adventurer, and statesman André Malraux (November 3, 1901 - November 23, 1976) was a French author, adventurer and statesman preeminent in the world of French politics and culture during his lifetime. ...

External links

For more information on her former husband Henry Leigh Hunt (1886-1972) son of Leigh S.J. Hunt, former president of Ames College, Iowa, real-estate developer, adviser to President Roosevelt etc, see this page (http://www.library.unr.edu/specoll/mss/94-43.html/)