Ackermann, Louise Victorine (1813–1890)

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Ackermann, Louise Victorine (1813–1890)

French poet. Born Victorine Choquet in Paris, France, on November 30, 1813; died in Nice, on August 3, 1890; grew up in the Oise; educated by her Voltairean-atheist father; married Paul Ackermann (d. 1846, a German poet and philologist), in 1843.

Widowed after three years of marriage, Louise Ackermann wrote poems that resonate with pessimism, passion, and despair. An admirer of German philosophy and of Victor Hugo, she retired near Nice where she wrote Contes (1855), Poésies, Premières poésies (1863), Poésies philosophiques (1871), and Pensées d'une solitaire (Thoughts of a Lonely Woman, 1882). Her autobiography Ma Vie appeared in Oeuvres in 1885, while her journal, spanning the years 1848–69, was published in the Mercure de France on May 1, 1927.