Marguerite Yourcenar was a French novelist and essayist who was born in Brussels on this day, June 8, in 1903 (d. 1987). She was born Marguerite Antoinette Jeanne Marie Ghislaine Cleenewerck de Crayencour. Yourcenar was honored with multiple awards and was the first woman elected to the Académie française, in 1980.