Andrée Viollis

Andrée Viollis (9 December 1870 – 9 August 1950) was a French journalist and writer. A prominent figure in news journalism and major reporting, she was an anti-fascist and feminist activist who was part of the French group associated with the World Committee Against War and Fascism. Viollis worked for various newspapers, including La Fronde, L'Écho de Paris, Excelsior, Le Petit Parisien, The Times, Daily Mail, Vendredi, Ce soir, and L'Humanité. She received several awards, including the Legion of Honour.

Early life and education

Andrée Françoise Claudius Jacquet de la Verryere was born in Mées on 9 December 1870 to a cultivated bourgeois family. After obtaining her baccalaureate, she studied at the Sorbonne and graduated from the University of Oxford.

Career

After graduation, she turned to journalism and made her debut in the feminist newspaper La Fronde, directed by Marguerite Durand.

She married Gustave Téry, professor of philosophy, with whom she had two children, including Simone Téry. In 1903, when Simone was four, Andree divorced Gustave. In 1905, she married Henri d'Ardenne de Tizac, curator of the Musée Cernuschi and author of novels under the pseudonym of Jean Viollis. They had two other children. With her second husband, she became involved in literary journalism as a critic, columnist, serialist, and storyteller; they also co-authored novels.

Viollis affiliated with L'Écho de Paris and Excelsior, writing in favor of women's emancipation and the rights of the mother. From 1914, she worked at the newspaper Le Petit Parisien, staying twenty years, where she turned to major reporting and covered diverse areas, including sporting events, major trials, political interviews, and war correspondence. During World War I, for the period of 1914 to 1916, she served as a nurse at the front, as well as at Bar-le-Duc and Sainte-Menehould.