Ева Кюри: Жизнь, творчество и благотворительность.

French–American journalist and pianist (1904–2007)

Ève Denise Curie Labouisse (ɛv dəniz kyʁi labwis; December 6, 1904 – October 22, 2007) was a French and American writer, journalist and pianist. Ève Curie was the younger daughter of Marie Skłodowska Curie and Pierre Curie. Her sister was Irène Joliot Curie and her brother in law Frédéric Joliot Curie. She worked as a journalist and authored her mother's biography Madame Curie and a book of war reportage, Journey Among Warriors. From the 1960s she committed herself to work for UNICEF, providing help to children and mothers in developing countries. Ève was the only member of her family who did not choose a career as a scientist and did not win a Nobel Prize, although her husband, Henry Richardson Labouisse Jr., did collect the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965 on behalf of UNICEF, completing the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prize winners.

Ève Denise Curie was born in Paris, France, on December 6, 1904. She was the younger daughter of the scientists Marie and Pierre Curie, who also had another daughter Irène (born 1897). Ève did not know her father, who died in 1906 in an accident, run over by a horse cart. After this accident, Marie Curie accepted her husband's teaching position at La Sorbonne. Her father in law, Dr. Eugène Curie, had moved in with the family when his wife died, and he took care of the children while Pierre and Marie, and then Marie only, went to work. When he died in 1910, Marie Curie remain alone to bring up her daughters with the help of governesses. Even though Ève confessed later that as a child she had suffered from a lack of sufficient attention of her mother and that only later, in her teens, she developed a stronger emotional bond to her, Marie took great care for the education and development of interests of both her daughters. Whereas Irène followed in her mother's footsteps and became an eminent scientist (she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with her husband Frédéric Joliot Curie in 1935), Ève showed more artistic and literary interests. Even as a child she displayed a particular talent for music. Whatever the weather, they went on long walks and rode on bikes. They went swimming in summer, and Marie had gymnastics equipment installed in the garden of their house in Sceaux, Hauts de Seine. Ève and Irène also learned sewing, gardening and cooking. Although the girls were French nationals (Ève later became an American citizen), and their first language was French, they were familiar with their Polish origin and spoke Polish. In 1911 they visited Poland (the southern part, which was then under Austrian rule). During their visit to Poland, they also rode horses and hiked in the mountains.

In 1921, Ève set off on her first journey across the Atlantic Ocean: that spring, she sailed with her sister and mother on board the ship RMS Olympic to New York City. Marie Curie, as a two time laureate of the Nobel Prize, the discoverer of radium and polonium, was welcomed there with all due ceremony; her daughters were also very popular with American high society. Radiant at parties and joyous, Ève was dubbed by the press "the girl with radium eyes". During the trip Ève and Irène also acted as their mother's "bodyguards" – Marie, usually focused on research work and preferring a simple life, did not always feel comfortable facing the homage paid to her. While in the United States, Marie, Irène and Ève met President Warren G. Harding in Washington, D. C., saw Niagara Falls and went by train to see the Grand Canyon. They returned to Paris in June 1921. Ève, like her sister Irène, graduated from the Collège Sévigné, a non denominational private high school in Paris, where she obtained her baccalaureate in 1925. Meanwhile, she also improved her piano skills and gave her first concert in Paris in 1925. Later, she performed on stage many times, giving concerts in the French capital, in the provinces and in Belgium. After Irène married Frédéric Joliot in 1926, Ève stayed with her mother in Paris, taking care of her and accompanying her on trips throughout France, Italy, Belgium, and Switzerland. In 1932, they also accompanied the President of Czechoslovakia, Tomáš Masaryk, on his trip to Spain. Although she loved her mother, Ève had a quite different personality from her (and from her sister Irène). She was not interested in science, preferring the humanities. Unlike her mother, she was always attracted by refined life. Whereas Marie usually wore simple, black dresses, Ève always cared about smart clothes, wore high heeled shoes and make up, and loved shining at parties. However, both Ève and Irène nursed their mother with devotion until her death. Marie, ill with aplastic anemia, probably caused by her long term exposure to ionizing radiation, died on July 4, 1934.

After Marie Curie's death, Ève decided to express her love by writing a biography. To this end, she temporarily withdrew from social life and moved to a small flat in Auteuil, Yvelines, where she gathered and sorted documents and letters left by Marie. In Autumn 1935, she visited her family in Poland, looking for information about her mother's childhood and youth. The fruit of this work was the biography Madame Curie, simultaneously published in France, Britain, Italy, Spain, the United States and other countries in 1937. Madame Curie was instantly popular; in many countries including the United States, it was a bestseller. In the U. S. it won the third annual National Book Award for Non Fiction
voted by the American Booksellers Association. There was a film adaptation in 1943 by Metro Goldwyn Mayer, with Greer Garson in the title role. Ève became more and more engaged in literary and journalistic work. Apart from her mother's biography, she published musical reviews in the Candide weekly and articles on theater, music, and film in other Paris newspapers. After her return to Europe, Ève Curie served as a volunteer in the women's medical corps of the Free French during the Italian Campaign, where she was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in the French 1st Armored Division. In August 1944 she took part in landing with her troops in Provence in southern France. She was decorated with the Croix de guerre for her services.

After the liberation of France, Ève Curie first worked as a co editor of the daily newspaper Paris Presse from 1944 to 1949, but was also active in the political sphere. For example, she was responsible for women's affairs in de Gaulle's government, and in 1948 along with other prominent European intellectuals, she appealed to the United Nations for recognition of the state of Israel. In the years 1952–1954, she was a special advisor to Hastings Lionel Ismay, the first Secretary General of NATO. On 19 November 1954 she married the American politician and diplomat Henry Richardson Labouisse Jr., who served as the United States Ambassador to Greece from 1962 to 1965. Ève Curie became an American citizen in 1958.

In 1965, Ève's husband gave up his job in the U. S. government when the Secretary General of the United Nations U Thant offered him the position of the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF. Labouisse held this office until 1979, actively supported by his wife, who also worked for the organization and was often called "the First Lady of UNICEF". Together, they visited more than 100 countries, mostly in the Third World, which were beneficiaries of UNICEF's help. In 1965, Labouisse, accompanied by his wife, accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded to his organization.