Judith Cladel

Judith Cladel was a French playwright, novelist, biographer, journalist, and critic, born in Paris on March 25, 1873, and she lived there throughout her life. She was the daughter of novelist Léon Cladel and the musician Julia Mullen Cladel, and sources note that she began writing young, encouraged by her father.

Her first play, Le Volant, was performed at the Théâtre de l'Oeuvre in 1895, when she was 22. She later wrote biographies of her father and then turned to artists, especially Auguste Rodin. Her book Rodin, sa vie glorieuse, sa vie inconnue became her best-known work, and accounts describe it as the standard biography of Rodin for decades. She also played an important part in the founding of the Musée Rodin in 1916.

Cladel was a member of the Prix Femina jury from 1916 until her death on January 29, 1958. Archival records in the United States also show the breadth of her literary papers and correspondence, reflecting a long career at the center of French literary and artistic life.