François Mauriac

Infobox writer
name = François Mauriac


imagesize = 180px
caption = Mauriac
birthname = François Charles Mauriac
birthdate = Birth date|1885|10|11|mf=y
birthplace = Bordeaux, France
deathdate = death date and age|1970|9|1|1885|10|11|mf=y
deathplace = Paris, France
nationality = French
influenced = Elie Wiesel
awards = awd|"Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française"|1926 awd|Nobel Prize in Literature|1952

François Mauriac (October 11, 1885—September 1, 1970) was a French author; member of the" Académie française" (1933); laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature (1952). He was awarded the Grand Cross of the "Légion d'honneur" (1958). He is acknowledged to be one of the greatest Roman Catholic writers of the 20th century.

Biography

He was born "François Charles Mauriac" in Bordeaux, France. He studied literature at the University of Bordeaux, graduating in 1905, after which he moved to Paris to prepare for postgraduate study at the École des Chartes. He was opposed to the rule in Vietnam, and strongly condemned the use of torture by the French army in Algeria. He also published a series of personal memoirs and a biography of Charles de Gaulle.

On June 1, 1933 he was elected a member of the "Académie française", succeeding Eugène Brieux. [Cf. [http://www.academie-francaise.fr/immortels/base/academiciens/fiche.asp?param=562 Académie française, "Les immortels": "François Mauriac (1885-1970)"] fr icon]

In 1952, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature «for the deep spiritual insight and the artistic intensity with which he has in his novels penetrated the drama of human life». [Cf. [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1952/index.html The Nobel Foundation, "The Nobel Prize in Literature 1952: François Mauriac"] en icon] He was awarded the Grand Cross of the "Légion d'honneur" in 1958. [Cf. [http://www.academie-francaise.fr/immortels/base/academiciens/fiche.asp?param=562 Académie française, "Les immortels": "François Mauriac (1885-1970)"] fr icon ] Mauriac's complete works were published in twelve volumes between 1950 and 1956. He also encouraged Elie Wiesel to write about his experiences as a Jew during the Holocaust.

Mauriac had a bitter public dispute with Roger Peyrefitte, who criticised the Vatican in books such as "Les Clés de saint Pierre" (1953). Mauriac threatened to resign from the paper he was working with at the time ("L'Express") if they did not stop carrying advertisements for Peyrefitte's books. The quarrel was exacerbated by the release of the film adaptation of Peyrefitte's "Les Amitiés Particulières" and culminated in a virulent open letter by Peyrefitte in which he revealed Mauriac's private life and called him a Tartuffe.

Mauriac also had a bitter dispute with Albert Camus immediately following the liberation of France in World War II. At that time, Camus edited the resistance paper (now an overt daily) "Combat" while Mauriac wrote a column for "Le Figaro". As Camus argued for the need for newly liberated France to purge all elements associated with collaboration with the Nazis, Mauriac warned that such disputes should be set aside in the interests of national reconciliation. Mauriac also doubted how impartial or dispassionate justice could be given the emotional turmoil of liberation. Years later, in a speech before Catholic monks, Camus--reflecting on the then well-known excesses of the post-liberation purge--would admit that Mauriac had been right in his warnings and caution on this matter.

François Mauriac died in Paris on September 1, 1970 and was interred in the Cimetière de Vemars, Val d'Oise, France.

He was the father of writer Claude Mauriac and grandfather of Anne Wiazemsky, a French actress and author who worked with and married French director Jean-Luc Godard.

Awards and honors

* 1926 — "Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française"
* 1933 — member of the "Académie française"
* 1952 — Nobel Prize in Literature
* 1958 — Grand Cross of the "Légion d'honneur"

Works

Footnotes

External links

*Commons-inline|François Mauriac
* [http://theparisreview.org/viewinterview.php/prmMID/5197 The Paris Review Interview]
* [http://www.philippesollers.net/Mauriac.html François Mauriac by Philippe Sollers] fr icon