Anna de Noailles

Born in Paris on November 15, 1876, Anna de Noailles was a French poet and novelist of Romanian and Greek family background. She became a leading literary figure in France before the First World War, admired for intense, lyrical writing that returned again and again to love, nature, life, and death.

Her first poetry collection, Le Cœur innombrable (1901), brought her wide attention, and she went on to publish more poetry, novels, and memoir-style writing. Contemporary sources describe her as one of the few women poets of her era to receive major public recognition, including the Grand Prix of the Académie Française, and she was also elected to the Académie royale de langue et de littérature françaises de Belgique.

Anna de Noailles died in Paris on April 30, 1933, but her work still stands out for its energy, sensuality, and direct feeling. For listeners coming to her for the first time, she offers a vivid mix of elegance and urgency that feels very alive on the page.