Maurois, André (Emile Hertzog)

(1885–1967)

   French writer. Among modern French men of letters none has had so notable an affinity with British life and culture as André Maurois. Born in Elbeuf, Normandy, into a family that had settled there from Alsace at the time of the Franco-Prussian war, he studied at Rouen. During World War I, he served as an interpreter with a Scottish regiment and his experiences produced a delightful book, The Silence of Colonel Bramble (Fr. orig. 1918; Eng. 1919), published under the pen name of André Maurois. His prolific literary output during the next half century was marked by a series of witty and erudite biographies. His English subjects were Shelley, DISRAELI, Byron and Edward VII, together with a history of England; while the eminent French writers on whom he published studies included Voltaire, Chateaubriand, George Sand, Victor Hugo, Marcel PROUST and Balzac. His collected works were published in sixteen volumes (1950–5).

   Maurois was elected to the French Academy in 1938. With the outbreak of World War II, he took refuge in the United States, where he taught at Princeton.