Anna de Noailles (1876–1933), a writer and poet with close ties to Marcel Proust, was a leading figure of the French fin-de-siècle. She wrote four novels and many volumes of poems, co-founded the Prix Femina, and was an associate of La Nouvelle Revue Française which, in association with Gallimard, became one of the leading publishers of her time (and ours). Inspired by deNoailles’ extensive travels in Italy, “A Roman Morning” first appeared in her late volume of essays, Exactitudes, published in Paris by Bernard Grasset in 1930.