Joséphine Colomb (1833–1892)

Joséphine-Blanche Bouchet, later Colomb, was born in La Roche-sur-Yon in the Vendée region of France to Louis Bouchet, a physician, and his wife Marie Anne Julienne Perrine.
In 1859, she married
Louis-Casimir Colomb, an academic, illustrator and writer, and thereafter signed her works as Madame J. Colomb or Madame Louis-Casimir Colomb. Her numerous books for young people, published by Hachette in Paris, were unusual for the era in that they featured intelligent characters with minds of their own who often challenged adult authority. She also published Les Béatitudes, a version of the Bibical Beatitudes in verse, with music by César Franck. The Académie française awarded her the Prix Montyon in 1875 for La fille de Carilès, and the Prix Jules Favre in 1893 for Ensemble de son œuvre, a collection published posthumously.