Yourcenar devoted Dear Departed, the first volume of this treasured autobiography, to her maternal forebears. In this second volume the focus switches to her father's family in northeastern France. A tumultuous history is revealed through the eyes of a remarkable gallery of ancestors: canonesses and matriarchs, statesmen and scoundrels, merchants and artists (Rubens had married into the family). However, the central story is of the turbulent youth, numerous affairs, desertion from the army and vagabond spirit of Michel de Crayencour, Yourcenar's own father. From him Yourcenar inherited her boldness of spirit, independence, sensuality and liberality. Michel educated his daughter and fostered in her the intellectual breadth, originality and subtlety that are so characteristic of her work. How Many Years is not only an enlightening journey to a vanished community but a glimpse into the forces and personalities that helped shape one of the finest writers of our age. The third volume follows in 2000.