I take my self-described title as a modern salonnière very seriously, mining history for details of other salonieres for fodder for my explorations.

One of my favorite salonnieres is Catherine de Vivonne, or Marquise Rambouillet, who turned The Chambre Bleue into one of the most famous salons in history. I read about notorious figures like her in order to understand what it is they were trying to achieve so I can integrate their values into the literary adventures I create here on The Diary of an Improvateur. One such evening was a fictive salon during which she held court with her salonieres in Ally Coulter’s space at the Holiday House NYC.

After she had settled herself near the fire, Madame Rambouillet listened “intently as poet François de Malherbe, a central figure within her inner circle, read from his poem ‘To Cardinal Richelieu.’ The coterie of intellectuals gathered around her would be quietly engrossed in the verses honoring the powerful clergyman as the poet’s words wafted toward the ornate ceiling, a spate of lively applause echoing after them in the statuesque space.

Her smug expression would signal she had yet again pulled off a sublime evening of titillation, the mix of jealousy and awe on the faces of the shrewdest women surrounding her—Madame de Sévigné, Madame de La Fayette, the Duchesse de Longueville and Comtesse de La Suze, among them—the only sign her trendsetting heart required as confirmation.” All of the details of this evening are make-believe, of course—straight from my imagination—so please treat it as such.