André Maurois (1885-1967)

André Maurois, born Emile Salomon Wilhelm Herzog was a French author. "André Maurois" was a pseudonym that became his legal name in 1947.

During World War I he joined the French army and served as an interpreter and later a liaison officer to the British army. His first novel, Les silences du colonel Bramble, was a witty but socially realistic account of that experience. It was an immediate success in France. It was translated and also became popular in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries as The Silence of Colonel Bramble. Many of his other works have also been translated into English (mainly by Hamish Miles (1894-1937)), as they often dealt with British people or topics, such as his biographies of Disraeli, Byron, and Shelley.

In 1938 Maurois was elected to the prestigious Académie française. Maurois was encouraged and assisted in seeking this post by Marshal Philippe Pétain, and he made a point of acknowledging with thanks his debt to P?tain in his 1941 autobiography, Call no man happy, though by the time of writing, their paths had sharply diverged, Pétain having become Head of State of the Nazi-collaborationist Vichy France.

When World War II began, he was appointed the French Official Observer attached to the British General Headquarters. In his official capacity he accompanied the British Army to Belgium. He personally knew the main politicians of the French Government, and on 10 June 1940, he was sent on a mission to London. The Armistice ended that mission. Maurois was demobilized and traveled from England to Canada. He wrote of these experiences in his book, Tragedy in France.

During World War II he served in the French army and the Free French Forces.

He died in 1967 after a long career as an author of novels, biographies, histories, children's books and science fiction stories.

In literature as in love, we are astonished at what is chosen by others.

We appreciate frankness from those who like us. Frankness from others is called insolence.