Hélène van Zuylen

Common card · No. 472190

Baroness Hélène van Zuylen van Nijevelt van de Haar or Hélène de Zuylen de Nyevelt de Haar, née de Rothschild (21 August 1863 – 17 October 1947) was a French author and a member of the prominent Rothschild banking family. She collaborated on stories and poems with her lesbian partner Renée Vivien, sometimes under the pen name Paule Riversdale. An only child, the daughter of Salomon James de Rothschild, she was disinherited by her mother for marrying a Catholic, Baron Etienne van Zuylen of the old Dutch noble family Van Zuylen van Nievelt. Hélène was one of a trio of French female motoring pioneers of the Belle Epoque. She entered the 1898 Paris–Amsterdam–Paris Trail, thus becoming the first woman to compete in an international motor race.

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