francoise sagan

It's easy for me to forget the details of Francoise Sagan's life while I look at pictures of her.  Her unfussy style is deceiving; the tousled brown hair, cozy black sweaters overwhelming her small frame, and habit of being photographed barefoot paint a picture of a much simpler life than the one she lived. 

Francoise Sagan is best known her novel that she published when she was seventeen: Bonjour Tristesse.  The title translates in English to "hello sadness", which is definitely the name of the latest Los Campesinos! album and has long been rumored to be the inspiration behind "The Sound of Silence" by Simon & Garfunkel.   Sagan continued writing, extending her work to the stage and screen in addition to her novels and short stories, and also lead a personal life that, I suppose, is best described as "colorful".  She maintained a long-time affair with the editor of French Playboy, traveled with the likes of Truman Capote and Ava Gardener, and was in and out of legal trouble...including a tax fraud charges and an incident where she gave her dog cocaine to prove to the policemen who came to her home for an inspection that the drug was "harmless." She's not a hero, but she was a talented woman whose life inspires me to do as much as I can while wasting as little of my own as possible.

With Jean Seberg