Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont
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Jeanne Marie Leprince de Beaumont French novelist, (Rouen, 1711-Chavanod, Savoy, 1780). Her first work, a moralistic novel, The Triumph of Truth (le Triomphe de la Vérité) was published in1748.
When her first marriage failed, she became a governess in London. She continued her literary career by publishing many school books (Éducation complète, ou Abrégé de l'histoire universelle, 1762 ; le Mentor moderne, 1773). She then began to publish collections she called "magazines" of educational and moral stories and poems for children.
Over the next thirty years, dozens of versions of these "magazines" were printed, all containing the famous story Beauty and the Beast.
Another famous storyteller of the era, Mme Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve was the original author of the story. Leprince de Beaumont used her basic theme and considerably revised and abridged the lengthy story. The success of the shorter version is why today Leprince de Beaumont is usually known as the author.
After a successful publishing career in England, she remarried, bore many children, and left England to live the rest of her life in Savoy.