La Petite Plaisance (Northeast Harbor, ME)

This grant helps restore the home of French writer Marguerite Yourcenar, winner of the Prix Femina and the Erasmus Prize, she was the first woman elected to the Académie Française, in 1980. She lived and wrote at this house in Maine for 40 years before her death there.

In 2013, La Petite Plaisance received the prestigious designation of “Maisons des Illustres” (Houses of the Illustrious) from th French Ministry of Culture. It was the first site to receive this distinction in the U.S. and only the second at the time outside of the French territories.

Restoration of the house

$1,180 in addition to the 2017 Grant of $1,107 from a private donor and the initial Grant in 2013 of $ 8,000 from the Boston Chapter

Private donor

2018