Mauriac, François

(1885-1970)

   writer

   Born in bordeaux, François Mauriac was raised and educated in a strict Christian, almost Jansenist, tradition by his mother, as is reflected in his writings (Le Jeune Homme, 1926; La Province, 1926; Commencements d'une vie, 1932; Écrits intimes, 1953). Coming to Paris in 1926, he dedicated himself to literature, but his early writings, a collection of poems (Les Mains jointes, 1909) and novels (L'Enfant chargé de chaînes, 1913; La Robe prétexte, 1914) went unappreciated. He was first recognized for Le Baiser au lépreux(1922), which, along with Génétrix(1923), won wide critical and popular acclaim. other works considered among the finest of 20th-century fiction are Le Désert de l'amour (1925). Thérèse Desqueyroux (1927), and Le Nœud des vipères (1932). He is also the author of a biography, Vie de Racine (1928), of critical essays including Le Rencontre avec Pascal (1926), and spiritual writings (La Vie de Jésus, 1936). Mauriac was also known as an outspoken journalist and incisive polemicist (Journal, 1934-51; Le Cabinet noir, 1943, written under the pseudonym of Forez; and Bloc-Notes, 1958-61). In the postwar period, he took up the cause of colonialism and the ideals of Gaullism. A profoundly religious Catholic, he was chiefly concerned in his novels with basic moral conflicts. Mauriac was elected to the Académie Française in 1933, was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1952, and was named to the legion of honor in 1958.