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French writer, born in Elbeuf on July 26th, 1885, André Maurois was the literary pen name of Émile Salomon Wilhelm Herzog before becoming his legal name
After studies at the small high school of Elbeuf, then at the high school Crow of Rouen, he received a price of honor in elementary mathematics, a first prize of Greek and Latin version then a first prize of philosophy in the competitive examination. He(it) obtains finally a Bachelor of literature in Caen.
From 1906, he gives his first conferences, makes up(composes) news(short stories) without publishing them.
In 1912, he gets married and their first child is born just before the war, two others will be born later.
When the first war is declared in 1914, Herzog is mobilized and is affected(allocated) as interpreter in the expeditionary force of Rouen.
From 1915 till 1916, he is a liaison officer with the 9th Scottish division in the North. In the year 1916, he is replaced towards the back because of health on the base(basis) of Havre.
In 1917-1918, he ends the war as liaison officer in the allied Top management(General staff), with which he arrives in the year 1917 at Abbeville.
In his reports(memoirs) of 1948, he describes Abbeville so:
" Adorable one cathedral which surmounted(overcame) a tower of lookout, so graceful, dominated the city. Old wooden houses in the sculptured beams surrounded a statue of admiral Courbet, spreading(widening) the hand to see if it is raining as said the inhabitants. These, suspicious and fine Inhabitants of Picardy, looked like the Middle-class persons of the XVth century cut in the beams of their houses. Although the city was visited by the German planes, the storekeepers made with the English Top management(General staff) of brilliant fuss, refused to be evacuated. Active girls defied the death to sell postcards and beer to tommies. "

( 130 street holy Gilles disappeared on May 20th, 1940) were accommodated in the magnificent hotel of Aumale. Abbeville is then bombarded shortly after her arrival.
In March, 1918, a German offensive takes place and German arrive near Amiens, General Foch takes control armed forces, and Émile Herzog ends his first book " The silences of colonel Bramble " but does not know a publisher(editor). As we are in wartime, the army imposes on him(her) to find a pen name, he chooses then André's first name in homage to his cousin killed by the enemy and Maurois, the neighbouring village of Cambrai which he(it) crossed.
During this time to Abbeville, the refugees mass(massage) and the allies continue their ball to feed the forehead(front).
At Paul Duclercq, already bookseller of Abbeville, opened in spite of bombardments, the book is a big hit, it tears away(extracts) and the criticisms(critics) are favorable, 50 000 copies are published(edited).
On May 1st and 2nd, 1918 takes place in solicitors' room(chamber) of the place(square) of Guindal, the interallied conference of organization of the command of the unique(only) command (by Foch). Maurois participates in it, recently recognized as literary person and writer.
He had the honor to be next(go alongside) of this fact to Douglas Haid, to commander-in-chief of the British armies, to Georges Clémenceau, and to Raymond Poincaré when this one came to Abbeville to meet Georges V there.
In this book which underlines the differences between Frenchman(French people) and Englishman(English people), a quarter is dedicated to Abbeville (called Estrées) and to saint Vulfran (renamed saint Féréol)
In November, 1918, the war ends but Maurois whose health is weakened by the Spanish flu and the death of his(her) cousin, begins(affects) his(her,its) convalescence in the city which welcomed him(it) until then. He was able to find his wife and his 4-year-old daughter only in 1919.
The second novel of Maurois " neither angel, nor animal " was completely written to Abbeville dice in March, 1918 at the age of 33. In this one, he says of our city " I liked very much the city or the hazards of war made me live; I liked ,its churches, the beautiful courts(yards) paved by his(her) old hotels and his(her,its) houses of sculptured wood. "
This book unfortunately had no same success.
He wrote then his first biography " Ariel or Shelley's life " which again makes him(it) take up with the success and dedicates itself then to its writer's only vocation.
The number of novels is going to be phenomenal afterward, a considerable work of successful works, about sixty different kinds(genres). One of his(her,its) novels "Climates" will be adapted to the cinema in 1962 with Jean Pierre Marielle.
The wife of Maurois dies in 1924 of a blood-poisoning. The writer remarries in 1926 with a woman who will become her collaborator to the end.
Then came the admission to the Académie française on June 23rd, 1938, doctor Honoris causa of the universities of Oxford, Maryland and Princeton.
In 1940, he asks in spite of his age to be again mobilized as reserve officer.
In 1943, he(it) participates in the landing in Corsica, in the campaign(countryside) from Italy of which he(it) comes back sick person.
In 1946, he(it) turns(returns) to the literature but does not forget Abbeville. He learnt(taught) by the TSF(RADIO) and the newspapers that the city where he so much liked(loved) and who inspired him(it) for the writing of the first two novels was dramatically touched, reduced to nothing on May 20th and 21st, 1940. He(it) followed the progress of the reconstruction of the city to 1960, during 20 years.
Maurois will die in 1967 in Neuilly on the Seine, the holder of Big Cross of the legion of Honor and knight of the arts and letters.
To end this article, I would like to specify that André Maurois was the author of number of quotations which made of him a philosopher and a man of wit. Some of these quotations would deserve to be chosen as subject of examination in the tub(ferry,high school diploma). In here are some:
· The happiness, it is exactly to have no desire to change those who we love.
· The happiness for which we wait is more beautiful than the one which we enjoy
· The art is an effort to create, in quoted(esteemed) by the real world, a more human world
The works of Maurois are read always forty three-ninety two years later and the criticisms are always positive
According to Gérard Devismes

Creation date : 15/07/2016 22:32
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