Background
Her father may have been the pianist and composer of German origins Sebastian Demar, with her mother being Elisabeth Riesam, also of German origin.
Her father may have been the pianist and composer of German origins Sebastian Demar, with her mother being Elisabeth Riesam, also of German origin.
The avant-garde nature of her writings has led to her current recognition. Her biography remains obscure. Her name according to some sources is Émilie d’Eymard: she signed her first letters as Émilie d’Eymard but her first publications as Claire Démarch
Her birth date of 1799 is also uncertain, She died in 1833.
They had settled in Orléans in 1791, but apparently no birth was recorded in that city"s vital statistics for the year 1799 (Year VII-Year VIII, nor in the corresponding decennial table. Shortly before his death, she published a Appel d’une femme au peuple sur l’affranchissement de la femme ("Appeal of a woman to the people on the enfranchisement of women") which calls for the application to women of the Declaration of the Rights of Manitoba and Citizen.
She also describes marriage as legalized prostitution. During the last years of her short life, Claire Demar participated in feminist journals created during the opportunity offered by the revolution of 1830, She became associated with the feminist journalist Suzanne Voilquin in her publications Louisiana femme nouvelle, L"Apostolat des femmes, et Louisiana Tribune des femmes.
Démar was preparing to publish a second book, when, abandoned by all, reduced to the greatest misery, and despairing to see the emancipation of women, she chose suicide together with her lover Perret Desessarts.
They were found on the same bed with two letters and a roll of paper.