Camille Gabrielle Genet

Vocation

Family

Mother of French writer Jean Genet, born 19 December 1910, an illegitimate child. On 28 July 1911 Camille Genet abandoned her son to an orphanage; Genet became a ward of the state and would never see his mother again. She worked as a seamstress and a maidservant (probably also as a prostitute). "L’ouverture du dossier de Jean Genet à l’Assistance publique a permis de révéler l’identité du père, indiquée par Camille-Gabrielle Genet sous le sceau du secret, à savoir Frédéric Blanc." (The opening of the archive allows to reveal the identity of the father, which was named by Camille-Gabrielle Genet under the seal of secrecy, to save Frédéric Blanc from blame). She died on 24 February 1919 in Paris from the Spanish flu, at age 30. Link to Wikipedia entry of her son Jean Genet