André Léo

André Léo (pen name of Victoire Léodile Béra; d. 1900), French novelist, journalist, militant feminist, Communard and Bakuninist, who is considered by many modern feminists to be one of the great writers of the nineteenth century. Member of the International who was also involved with the Association of Women for the Defence of Paris and Aid to the Wounded. After writing her first novel 'La Vieille Fille' (1864), Béra took the pen name André Léo, she started the newspaper 'La Coopération', advocating workers associations. Returning to Paris in 1860, she became involved with the Republicans and with the feminist activists Paule Minck and Louise Michel, and was arrested alongside Louise Michel at a protest put down by the army in Sept. 1870. She then founded a newspaper, 'La République des Travailleurs', and joined the Paris Commune, publishing editorials in 'La Sociale', which had a distribution of 100 000 copies, and for ' Cri du Peuple', and organising girl's eduction with Noémie Reclus and Anna Jaclard. She escaped the repression of the Bloody Week and went into exile in Switzerland and Italy, taking a prominent part in the publication of the journal 'Le Socialisme Progressif'.