Le Mur tombé du ciel #14: Élisa Mercœur

Élisa Mercœur (1809-35) was born in Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire, although she was abandoned at birth. Her surname, provided by the police, is false. She proved to be a gifted child and went on to be a self-taught poet familiar with such writers as Baudelaire, Hugo, Musset and Chateaubriand. She died of pulmonary tuberculosis at the age of twenty-six. A camelia in Le Jardin des Plantes carries her name.