George Sand

French author who wrote her first autobiography in 1827. Amandine married Casimir Dudevant, an older man on 9/10/1822, and had two children, Maurice on 6/30/1823 and Solange on 9/13/1828. Fame eluded her until she left her husband and kids on 1/04/1831 and headed to Paris. Once there, she lived a bohemian lifestyle, taking outstanding lovers, both male and female, and continuing to write. Her first novel, "Indiana" was published in 1832 under the pseudonym George Sand. Though not an attractive woman, she had a spirit and passion that attracted two of the most romantic figures of her day. In June 1833, she met Alfred de Musset and began a tempestuous love affair that continued until 3/06/1835. She obtained a legal marriage separation in July 1836 and later that year met Frederic Chopin. They carried on a passionate romance which lasted nine years, from May 1838 to 1846. Sand was the daughter of a man of royal ancestry. When she was four, he died and she was unhappily caught in between the conflicts of her mother and grandmother. After three convent schools she went to Nohant to live with her grandmother. There she developed a love of nature and her own free spirit, which she indulged by wearing men's clothing. At the age of 18, she married Casimir Dudevant on 9/10/1822 and subsequently had two children, a son, Maurice (born 6/30/1823) and a daughter, Solange (born 9/13/1828). Her frustration with the conventional life of a French housewife became intolerable until she abandoned the pretence. Never able to form a lasting romantic relationship, she had a series of lovers. Most of her later life was spent in Nohant, where she found in nature the fulfillment she could not find in a man. It is known that she had periodic bouts of depression; however, she was an idealist and optimist at heart. Her books are quintessentially the pastoral novel, favoring a naive belief in the goodness of humanity, maturing to a more pragmatic, post-Romantic realism. Politically she supported and wrote about socialist and nationalist causes. "I put up with life," she wrote, "Because I love it." She left 112 volumes when she died of stomach cancer at Nohant on 6/08/1876 at the age of 71. Link to Wikipedia biography