Ewelina Hańska Ewelina Hańska Eveline Hańska (Ewelina, née Rzewuska, 6 January c. 1805 – 11 April 1882) was a Polish noblewoman best known for her marriage to French novelist Honoré de Balzac. Born at the Wierzchownia estate in Volhynia, (now Ukraine) Hańska married landowner Wacław Hański (Wenceslas Hanski) when she was a teenager. Hański, who was about 20 years her senior, suffered from depression. They had five children, but only a daughter, Anna, survived. In the late 1820s, Hańska began reading Balzac's novels, and in 1832, she sent him an anonymous letter. This began a decades-long correspondence in which Hańska and Balzac
Eveline Burgess a surgeon in the army and taught her to play while she was a child. She was much admired and liked by the chess players for her charming personality and skillful game. Eveline Burgess held the chess championship, among women in the United States, since March 1907, having won it from Mrs. Clarence Frey, then living in Newark, N. J., but a member of the Woman's Chess Club of New York. The match was played at the club headquarters of the Martha Washington Hotel in New York. For this victory Burgess was awarded a gold medal. Soon after this she