Willy

"Willy, the pen-name adopted by the French novelist Henri Gauthier-Villars (1859-), born at Villiers-sur-Orge Aug. 10 1859. He was educated at the Lycee Condorcet and the College Stanislas, and afterward adopted a literary career. His early works include a Recueil des Sonnets (1878), and various volumes of essays and criticism, including Essais sur Mark Twain et les Parnassiens (1882), but he is best known for his novels, many of which were written in collaboration with the actress and authoress Colette Willy. The most famous of these is Claudine a l'Ecole (1900), with its sequels Claudine a Paris (1901), Claudine en Menage (1902) and Claudine s'en va (1903). Willy contributed largely to leading reviews, and also published various plays, including a theatrical version of Claudine a Paris, produced in 1902.