An architect and furniture designer, and a major figure in the history of modernity, Charlotte Perriand (1903-1999) devoted her life to the art of dwelling. While espousing the ideas of Le Corbusier, a longtime collaborator, she nonetheless developed her own vision, carving out a place for herself as a creative woman in a male-dominated world. Sensitive to the cause of women and the needs of the poor, she strove to serve the widest possible public, producing beautiful, useful, functional creations that have become icons of 20th-century design. This book presents, in photographs accompanied by a short introductory text, the extraordinary work and career of a free-thinking, independent woman, whose sociopolitically engaged approach is more relevant than ever today. As its name implies, La biblioth?que de l'Amateur is an art lover's library, retracing the creative history of the 20th century in the fields of architecture, design and the decorative arts.