Valentine Penrose ( Boué; 1 January 1898 – 7 August 1978), was a French surrealist poet, author, and collagist. Biography Valentine Boué was born in 1898 to a military family in Mont-de-Marsan, Landes, France. The family moved to Paris when she was very young. In 1925, she married the English artist, historian and poet Roland Penrose (1900–1984) and joined the community of surrealists based in Paris, Mougins and England. The marriage was never consummated. Valentine and her husband moved to Spain in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War. In the same year she joined the workers militia in Spain to defend the revolution. Valentine and Roland had different viewpoints on traditions in India, Eastern thought, and philosophy, which all led to a growing distance between the two. They were divorced in 1937, but met again in London during the war, after which she lived half her time with her ex-husband and his second wife, the American photojournalist Lee Miller. This arrangement continued for the rest of her life. She joined the French Army in 1940. She died on 7 August 1978 in Chiddingly, East Sussex, England, in the house of her ex-husband. Penrose was an independent woman who pushed against the social expectations set on her; as a woman she was expected to be a muse and object for male surrealist artists. Literary style and influences Valentine Penrose first encountered surrealism in the late 1920s. Penrose was one of the first of four women to become involved in the surrealist movement. Penrose was involved in the publication of Andre Breton's inaugural issue of La Révolution surréaliste; she was one of eight other women who were involved with the journal. Her first publication in the journal was a response to the 1929 Inquiry on love in La Révolution surréaliste no. 12. Valentine Penrose wrote surrealist poetry, although she is perhaps best known for her biography of the serial killer Elizabeth Báthory (1560-1614). Her poetry reflects her experience of automatic writing, collage and painting techniques such as Max Ernst’s frottage and Wolfgang Paalen’s fumage. It is said that her works stem from transgression and the reconstruction of defiance. For a female artist of her time it was unconventional for a woman to illustrate such erotic and violent works. The difference between Ernst and Penrose is that Ernst's work represents an over-dramatic dream sequence with dysfunctional and bizarre relationships whereas Penrose's illustrates the