Noëlle Roger

Hélène Pittard
Born	Hélène Dufour (1874-09-25)25 September 1874 Geneva, Switzerland
Died	5 October 1953(1953-10-05) (aged 79) Geneva, Switzerland
Pen name	Noëlle Roger
Nationality	Swiss
Genre	novel, play, short story, science fiction

Noëlle Roger, the pen name of Hélène Pittard (25 September 1874 – 5 October 1953), was a Swiss author writing in French.

Biography

The daughter of Théophile Dufour [fr], a Swiss jurist, and Léonie Bordier, she was born Hélène Dufour in Geneva. Her maternal grandfather was Henri Bordier [fr], a French historian. In her youth, she showed talent for both poetry and painting, eventually choosing to focus on writing.^[1]

Her first novel Larmes d'enfant was published in 1896. Her pen name was derived from the two names of brothers: reversing Léon gave Noëlle and Roger was used as is. She apprenticed as a journalist in London. Then, in 1900, she married the anthropologist Eugène Pittard. Her travels with her husband to various places inspired:

• La Route de l'Orient (1914)
• Princesse de Lune, a novel (1929)
• En Asie Mineure (1930)^[1]

During World War I, she trained as a nurse and looked after wounded French soldiers at a hospital in Lyon. She published some novels inspired by her experiences during the war and then produced a number of works of speculative fiction including:

• Le nouveau Déluge (1922)
• Le nouvel Adam (1924), translated into English as The New Adam (1926)^[2]
• Celui qui voit (1926)
• Le soleil enseveli (1928)
• Le chercheur d'ondes (1931)
• Le nouveau Lazare (1935)

The family grave at the Cimetière des Rois in Geneva

She also produced biographies of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Germaine de Staël and Henry Dunant, as well as plays for the theatre and for radio.^[1]

Works for children included:

• L'Enfant cet inconnu (1941)
• Peau d'éléphant (1943)^[1]

In 1948, she received a medal from the Académie française for her work.^[1]

She died in Geneva at the age of 78.^[1]

References

1. "Papiers Noëlle Roger" (PDF) (in French). Bibliothèque de Genève.
2. Bleiler, Everett Franklin (1990). Science-fiction, the Early Years: A Full Description of More Than 3,000 Science-fiction Stories from Earliest Times to the Appearance of the Genre Magazines in 1930 : with Author, Title, and Motif Indexes. Kent State University Press. p. 635. ISBN 0873384164.