Science: Madame Flammarion

Last week the publishers of the late Camille Flammarion, famed astronomer, announced that ten volumes of his works were yet to be issued. All must be revised, edited; some entirely rewritten. This work, they added, has been undertaken by his widow, Gabrielle.

On her way to school along lime-bordered paths past the back-hedges of the burghers of Juvissy, France, little Gabrielle Renaudot, a spindling girl with legs like matches, hempen ringlets and immense brown eyes peering from the wan mask of her face, would pause, with furtive admiration, to watch the famed astronomer meditating in his kitchen-garden. Her mother, Maria Latini, the original of Henri Regnault’s famed painting, Salome, was a friend of Flammarion’s. When she died, little Gabrielle went to the great man for advice and counsel. Was she fond of Science ? That was what he wanted to know. Ah, she would give her life for Science. He made her his secretary.

In 1914 she went to serve as a nurse in the Cherbourg naval hospital. A severe wound forced her to leave the service. She was awarded the silver Medal of Honor. Flammarion made her his partner, collaborator, housekeeper. On Sept. 9, 1919, he married her. Their wedding caused the worthies of Juvissy to whisper the inevitable ribaldries that occur to the vulgar whenever an aging celebrity marries a young girl. It is only recently that the public has learned the part she actually took in his work.

“We used to say that our pens mingled so much that they got mixed up—we never knew who had written what!” said she. “Ours was not an ordinary union—it was too complete for that. We never left each other for a moment. Our work was our whole life and our greatest pleasure. . . . During the 20 years I have been with him I never once heard him raise his voice. . . . From the first he destined me to succeed him, to go on with his work. . . .”