Madeleine de Scudéry

(1607 - 1701)

In 1637 the thirty-year-old Madeleine de Scudéry moved to Paris to live with her brother, Georges, a playwright, under whose name she published her first novel, Ibrahim or the Illustrious Basa, in 1641. She soon became a prolific author and the leading literary hostess in Paris and in 1653 began hosting a salon known as the Société du Samedi (Saturday Club).