Astronomie et Meteorologie a L'Usage Des Jeunes Personnes

The stark black publisher’s binding—contrasted with brilliant gold, blue, green, and red embellishments—would certainly have attracted any child to this astronomical children’s text. This book broke with the more traditional format of the dissemination of astronomical knowledge in France at the time, which often took place in a belles-lettres format under the pretext of a knowledgeable man conversing with a young and pretty woman. The author, Sophie Ulliac Tremadeure, only began working in the literary field after her father, a lieutenant colonel under Jerome Bonaparte, King of Westphalia, was put on half-pay after France’s regime change. To earn money for her family, Tremadeure began translating works by German authors into French under a pseudonym to avoid the prejudices that came with being a literary woman. She soon began writing her own novels and educational treatises, and writing became not only a source of income but a passion. Tremadeure wrote over fifty books during her long career, eventually writing under her own name, and became an advocate for the empowerment and emancipation of women through education.