Maurois, André

(1885-1967) (Émile Herzog)

   novelist, essayist, and historian

   Born Émile Herzog in Elbeuf, André Maurois, as he is best known, was educated at the university of Caen. His first work, Les Silences du colonel Bramble (1918), is a fictionalized memoir of his experiences in World War i, in which he served as an officer. This book, with its delicate humor, would launch his career. Five years later, he published the biography Ariel, ou la vie de Shelley, which was the first of a number of romanticized biographies. All relied on Maurois's imaginative interpretation, rather than scholarly background, and are written in a popular and engaging style. Maurois was especially interested in describing both creative lives and those of individuals of action. He also wrote philosophical works (Le Peseur d'âmes, 1931) and short science-fiction pieces (Toujours, l'inattendu arrive, 1943; La Machine à lire les pensées, 1943). He was interested, too, in the great developments of history and did a number of large historical studies (Histoire de l'Angleterre, 1937; Histoire des États-Unis, 1943; Histoire de la France, 1947). Maurois was elected to the Académie Française in 1938.