How Colette Became a Feminist: Selling Colette in the United States 1960–1985

During her lifetime, French novelist Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (1873–1954) insisted on her political antifeminism, but after her death she was celebrated by American feminists as a liberatory figure of women’s empowerment, and as an important writer of women’s experiences. Colette was taken up by American feminists through the marketing of her works as feminist by publisher Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, the incorporation of her texts into anthologies of women’s writing with consciousness-raising aims, and her popular reception in publications such as Ms. Magazine. The appeal of Colette, inspired by her biography as well as her literary oeuvre, was her depiction of women’s lives.