She was born in Arras, Pas de Calais, France, on 7 April 1907. She was the illegitimate daughter of a servant girl, Berthe Leduc and André Debaralle, the son of a rich Protestant family in Valenciennes, who subsequently refused to legitimize her. In Valenciennes, Violette spent most of her childhood suffering from poor self-esteem, exacerbated by her mother's hostility and excessive protectiveness. She developed tender friendships with her grandmother Fideline and her maternal aunt Laure. Her grandmother died when Leduc was a young child. Her formal education began in 1913, but was interrupted by World War I. After the war, she went to a boarding school, the Collège de Douai, where she experienced lesbian affairs with her classmate "Isabelle P", which Leduc later adapted into the first part of her novel Ravages and then the 1966 Thérèse et Isabelle. During her time at the Collège de Douai, she was introduced to what would become her first literary passions: the Russian classics, then Cocteau, Duhamel, Gide, Proust, and Rimbaud. In 1925, Leduc embarked on an affair with a supervisor at the Collège, Denise Hertgès, four years her senior. The affair was later discovered and Hertgès was fired over the incident. In 1926 Leduc moved to Paris, along with her mother and step-father, and enrolled in the Lycée Racine. That same year, she failed her baccalaureate exam and began working as a press cuttings clerk and secretary at Plon publishers later becoming a writer of news pieces about their publications. She continued to live with Hertgès for nine years in the suburbs of Paris. Violette's mother Berthe encouraged her homosexual relations, believing this would protect Violette from illegitimate pregnancy. In 1927, Violette meets Jacques Mercier, seven years her senior, in a cinema. Despite her involvement with Denise Hertgès, Jacques Mercier continuously pursues Violette. This love triangle is the basis of the plot Ravages, wherein Violette is represented by the character "Thérèse", Jacques Mercier by "Marc" and Denise Hertgès by "Cécile." Violette's relationship with Denise ends in 1935. In 1939, Violette marries Jacques Mercier. Their marriage is unsuccessful and the two separate. During their separation, Violette discovers that she is pregnant and almost loses her life during an abortion. In 1938 she meets Maurice Sachs - future author of Le Sabbat, and in 1942 he takes Violette to Normandy, where she writes the manuscript of L'Asphyxie. During this time, Violette was also involved with trading on the black market, which allowed her to make a living. In 1944, Violette sees Simone de Beauvoir, and in 1945 Violette gives Beauvoir a copy of the manuscript for L'Asphyxie. This interaction formed the basis of a friendship and mentorship between her and Beauvoir that lasted for the rest of her life. Her first novel, L'Asphyxie, was published by Albert Camus for Éditions Gallimard and earned her praise from Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean Cocteau and Jean Genet. Her friendship and love of Maurice Sachs is detailed in her autobiographyLa Bâtarde. In 1955, Violette published her novel Ravages with Gallimard, but the editor censored the first one hundred and fifty page section of the book. This section depicted Violette's sexual encounters and defloration with her female classmate, Isabelle P. Gallimard censored this section by labelling it obscene. The censored part was eventually published as a separate novella, Thérèse and Isabelle, in 1966. Another novel, Le Taxi, caused controversy because of its depiction of incest between a brother and sister. Critic Edith J. Benkov compared this novel with the work of Marguerite Duras and Nathalie Sarraute. Leduc's best-known book, the memoirLa Bâtarde, was published in 1964. It nearly won the Prix Goncourt and quickly became a bestseller. She went on to write eight more books, including La Folie en tête, the second part of her literary autobiography. In 1968 Radley Metzger made a of Leduc's novel Thérèse and Isabelle. The film was a commercial feature about adolescent lesbian love, starring Essy Persson and Anna Gael. Leduc developed breast cancer and died at the age of 65 after two operations. She was living at Faucon, Vaucluse, at the time of her death. Violette is a 2013 French biographicaldrama film about Leduc, written and directed by Martin Provost.
