Poems Without Frontiers

Louise was born in Paris but spent her early years in the neighbourhood of Montdidier near Amiens. Her father was interested in philosophy and undertook her early education following which she was sent to school in Paris.

She moved to Berlin in 1838 in order to study German at the Humboldt University. She married the academic and theologian, Paul Ackermann in 1843, but he died less than three years later, after which Louise moved to Nice in order to live with her sister.

Her early poems were published to acclaim in 1855 after which she moved to Paris where she entertained leading writers and turned to more sombre works of literature that revealed her disillusion with religion but also her increasing isolation.