| Elsa Triolet | |
|---|---|
| Born | Elsa Kagan September 12 or September 24, 1896 Moscow |
| Died | June 16, 1970 |
| Nationality | French |
| Notable award(s) | Prix Goncourt 1944 |
| Partner(s) | André Triolet, Louis Aragon |
| Relative(s) | Lilya Brik |
Elsa Yur'evna Triolet (September 12 (or September 24) 1896 - June 16, 1970) was a French writer.
Born Elsa Kagan (Russian: Эльза Каган) into a Jewish family of a lawyer and a music teacher in Moscow, she and her sister, Lilya Brik received excellent education and were able to speak fluent German and French and play the piano. Elsa graduated from the Moscow Institute of Architecture.
Elsa enjoyed poetry and in 1915 befriended an aspiring futurist poet and graphic artist Vladimir Mayakovsky. When she invited him home, the poet fell madly in love with her older sister Lilya, who was married to Osip Brik.
In 1918, at the outset of Russian Civil War, Elsa married the French cavalry officer André Triolet and emigrated to France, but for years in her letters to Lilya Elsa admitted to being heartbroken. She was the first to translate Mayakovsky's poetry (as well as volumes of other Russian-language poetry) to French. Later she divorced Triolet.
In the early 1920s, Elsa described her visit to Tahiti in her letters to Victor Shklovsky, who subsequently showed them to Maxim Gorky. Gorky suggested that the author should consider a literary career. The 1925 book In Tahiti, written in Russian, was based on these letters.
In 1928 Elsa met French writer Louis Aragon. They married and stayed together for 42 years. She influenced Aragon to join the French Communist Party.
Triolet and Aragon participated in French anti-fascist resistance movement. In 1944 she was the first woman to be awarded the Prix Goncourt, a prize in French literature.
She died, aged 73, in Moulin de Saint-Arnoult, France of a heart attack.
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