Marguerite Yourcenar, originally named Marguerite Antoinette Jeanne Marie Ghislaine Cleenewerck de Crayencour, was born on 8 June 1903 in Brussels and passed away on 17 December 1987 in Bar Harbor, Maine, United States. She was a prolific Belgian-born French novelist, essayist, poet, dramatist, and short-story writer who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1947.

Yourcenar was the first woman to be elected to the Académie Française in 1980, a prestigious literary institution. Her pen name, "Yourcenar," is an anagram of her original surname "Crayencour."

Her works are renowned for their classical style, erudition, and psychological depth. She excelled in historical novels, most notably in Mémoires d'Hadrien (1951), a fictionalized memoir of Roman Emperor Hadrian.

Yourcenar's literary career also included essays, poetry, and three volumes of family memoirs, which were well-received by critics and readers alike. Her writings often explore themes of human destiny, morality, and power, inspired by her interest in Eastern wisdom and Greco-Latin philosophy.