Who is Eleonora Duse as noted in the book, After Sappho?

The Italian actress Eleonora Duse is born in 1858 in Vigevano, Italy. She travels to Napoli and joins a theater company, working with Giacinta Pezzana. A man impregnates Eleonora and then “[refuses] ever to see her again” (71). Giacinta then helps Eleonora conceal her pregnancy onstage; Eleonora’s baby dies after only a few days. Eleonora later becomes a very successful actress, and by 1909 she “had been so many women” (75). She meets Lina Poletti, with whom she begins a romantic relationship. At the end of her life, Eleonora publicly rebukes the “monopoly of men” (84) that governs Italy. In 1914, she founds the Library for Actresses—a “sanctuary where any actress might find refuge” (147).