Blessed Motherhood, Bitter Fruit This page intentionally left blank Blessed Motherhood, Bitter Fruit Nelly Roussel and the Politics of Female Pain in Third Republic France elinor accampo The Johns Hopkins University Press Baltimore © 2006 The Johns Hopkins University Press All rights reserved. Published 2006 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1 The Johns Hopkins University Press 2715 North Charles Street Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363 www.press.jhu.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Accampo, Elinor Ann. Blessed motherhood, bitter fruit / Nelly Roussel and the politics of female pain in Third Republic France / Elinor Accampo. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 0-8018-8404-7 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Roussel, Nelly, 1878–1922. 2. Birth Control—France—Biography. 3. Feminists—France— Biography. 4. Women social reformers—France—Biography. I. Title. hq764.r68a33 2006 363.9(cid:118)6092—dc22 2005033501 A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. In memory of my mother, Alice Accampo (1910–1998) In memory of my sister, Jane Callaghy (1946–2001) For my daughter, Erin Accampo Hern This page intentionally left blank contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction:Nelly Roussel, “Contemporary of the Future” 1 1 Conversion Experiences 13 2 Mother and Missionary: The Ideological Foundations of an Unorthodox Feminism 35 3 The Making and Marketing of a Spectacular Apostle 70 4 The Public and Private Politics of Female Self-Sacrifi ce: Audience Reception 99 5 Pathologies and Persecutions 135 6 The Great War: Pacifi sm, Censorship, and the Disease of a “Weary, Wounded Heart” 171 7 Last Battles: Words of Combat, Hope, and Pain 205 Epilogue 239 Notes 251 Bibliography 291 Index 303 Illustrations follow page 107 This page intentionally left blank acknowledgments The research for this book began with a different project in mind. After having studied French fertility decline in the nineteenth century among the working classes, I wanted to fi nd out more about what the French were thinking when they had small families. I began researching the neo-Malthusian (French birth control) movement in the hope of learning what male, and especially female, pro- ponents of birth control were saying about reproduction and gender issues, but I soon discovered that few women numbered among their ranks. One of them, Nelly Roussel, had, however, left an enormous archive. I am an accidental biographer. As a social historian, it would never have oc- curred to me to write a biography had not the sources Roussel left behind been so rich. For the fi rst few years of looking at her archive, I tried to avoid “wasting time” reading materials that were not relevant to my project as I had defi ned it, but I fi nally gave in to this treasure of personal papers when several friends and colleagues prodded me to write a biography. Many years later, I feel gratifi ed that doing so allowed me to address the questions that had inspired my original proj- ect. I have many people to thank for making the fi nal result possible. First, I owe thanks to the institutional support I received. For my original conception of this project I thank the National Endowment for the Humanities for a Travel-to-Collections Grant and the American Council of Learned Societies for a summer grant. Otherwise, all the support for this project came from the University of Southern California: research grants from Institute for the Study of Women and Men in Society, the Zumberge Faculty Research and Innovation Award, the USC College Award for Research Excellence, and the USC College Faculty Development Award. This funding made travel to France and to confer- ences possible. I thank the staffs at the Archives nationales de France, Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris, Archives de la Préfec-