Nancy Mitford (1904–1973) was born into the British aristocracy and, by her own account, brought up without an education, except in riding and French. She managed a London bookshop during the Second World War, then moved to Paris, where she began to write her celebrated and successful novels, among them The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate, about the foibles of the English upper class. Nancy Mitford was also the author of four biographies: Madame de Pompadour (1954; available as an NYRB Classic), Voltaire in Love (1957), The Sun King (1966), and Frederick the Great (1970). In 1967 Mitford moved from Paris to Versailles, where she lived until her death from Hodgkin’s disease.
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The Soldier in Her
February 25, 1971
Memoirs of Madame de La Tour du Pin translated by Felice Harcourt, with an Introduction by Peter Gay
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All For Love
April 28, 1966
The Uncompromising Heart: A Life of Marie Mancini by Françoise Mallet-Joris, translated by Patrick O'Brien
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Belle Lettriste
February 6, 1964
Madame de Sevigne
by Harriet Ray Allentuch