Maurice Dekobra

Maurice Dekobra (1885, Paris - 1973) was a French writer. His real name was Maurice Tessier^[1]. Seen as a subversive writer in the 1920s and 1930s, he became one of the best-known French writers between the First and the Second World Wars^[1]. His books have been translated into 77 languages^[1]. In spite of this, he has now been declared a "total unknown".^[1]

Biography

At the age of 19, he started his career as a trilingual journalist - French, English, German^[1]. During the 1914-18 War he was attached as liaison officer/interpreter first to the Indian army, and later to the United States army. The contacts he made at this time ignited his passion for travel. He attributed the origin of his pen name to an episode in North Africa when he saw a snake charmer with two cobras. Allegedly he began thinking (in French of course!) of the "deux cobras", which led him to De-kobra, then Dekobra. The term 'dekobrisme' was coined from his fiction, which used journalistic features in his novels^[1]. He chose to live in the United States from 1939 to 1946^[1]. Upon returning to France, he started writing whodunits^[1].

Some of his novels were made into films^[2].

Bibliography

• Les Mémoires de Rat-de-Cave ou Du Cambriolage considéré comme un des beaux-arts (1912)
• Les Liaisons tranquilles (1920)
• Minuit... Place Pigalle (1923)
• Mon coeur au ralenti (1924)
• La Vénus à roulettes (1925)
• La Madone des sleepings (1925)
• La Gondole aux chimères (1926)
• Tu seras courtisane (1927)
• Flammes de velours (1927)
• Sérénade au Bourreau (1928)
• Les Tigres Parfumés - Aventures Au Pays Des Maharajahs (1929)
• Le Sphinx a parlé (1930)
• Aux cent mille sourires (1931)
• Fusillé à l'aube (1931)
• Aux cent mille sourires (1931)
• L'Archange aux pieds fourchus (1931)
• La Volupté éclairant le monde, (1932)
• Confucius en pull-over (1934)
• Madame Joli-Supplice (1935)
• Macao, enfer du jeu (1938)
• Émigrés de luxe (1941)
• Le roman d'un lâche (1942)
• La Perruche Bleue Journal d'une courtisane sous la terreur nazie (1945)
• Hamydal le Philosophe (1947)
• La Prison des Rêves (1947)
• Satan refuse du monde (1947)
• Les nuits de Walpurgis (1948)
• Et Eve gifla Adam... ou les aventures d'une Yankee à Montparnasse (1949)
• Salutations distinguées (1949)
• La Pavane des poisons (1950)
• La Rafle est pour ce soir (1953)
• Monsieur Lambers mourra ce soir (1957)
• Son altesse mon amant (1958)
• Casanova à Manhattan (1960)
• La Trahison du colonel Redko (1960)
• L'homme qui mourut deux fois - Les vestales du veau d'or (1960)
• Secrets de sleeping (1960)

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} Maurice Dekobra, Voyage au pays de l’oubli
2. ^ IMDB

• Davis, Robert Leslie "Maurice Dekobra: grand voyageur et romancier cosmopolite", PhD, Queen's University Belfast, 1970
• Collas, Philippe "Maurice Dekobra: gentleman entre deux mondes", Paris, Seguier, 2001, ISBN 2-84049-264-4

Persondata
Name	Dekobra, Maurice
Alternative names
Short description	Best selling author of 1920s/30s
Date of birth	1885
Place of birth	Paris
Date of death	1973
Place of death	Paris