Maurice Constantin-Weyer (24 April 1881,

Bourbonne-les-Bains Bourbonne-les-Bains () is a commune in the Haute-Marne department in north-eastern France in the region Grand Est.

Haute-Marne Haute-Marne (; English: Upper Marne) is a department in the Grand Est region of Northeastern France. Named after the river Marne, its prefecture is Chaumont. In 2019, it had a population of 172,512.Vichy Vichy (, ; ; oc, Vichèi, link=no, ) is a city in the Allier department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of central France, in the historic province of Bourbonnais. It is a spa and resort town and in World War II was the capital of ...

, Allier) was a French writer. His best known novel is ''Un homme se penche sur son passé'',

Prix Goncourt The Prix Goncourt (french: Le prix Goncourt, , ''The Goncourt Prize'') is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward o ...

1928 (tr.: ''A Man Scans His Past'', 1929).

Biography

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...

biographer Biographers are authors who write an account of another person's life, while autobiographers are authors who write their own biography. Biographers Countries of working life: Ab=Arabia, AG=Ancient Greece, Al=Australia, Am=Armenian, AR=Ancient Rome ...

and

essayist An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal ...

, Constantin lived ten years in Canada (

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Winn ...

) between 1904 and 1914 and this adventurous period fed a big part of his later work written in France between 1920 and 1950. Maurice Constantin-Weyer was a successful writer, best known for his novels of adventure: the most emblematic is ''Un homme se penche sur son passé'' (''A man scans his past''), which won the

in 1928, and whose action takes place in large areas of the

Prairie Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...

and northern Canada in the early twentieth century. He returned to France in 1914 to fight in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, where he was often wounded and decorated (

Verdun Verdun (, , , ; official name before 1970 ''Verdun-sur-Meuse'') is a large city in the Meuse department in Grand Est, northeastern France. It is an arrondissement of the department. Verdun is the biggest city in Meuse, although the capital ...

– Salonique...). After the war he became a journalist and published novels and biographies in France. His original last name was only "Constantin"; he added the name of his second wife in 1920 and signed all his works Maurice Constantin-Weyer.

Bibliography

For complete list see the French Wikipedia. English translations : * ''A Man Scans His Past'',1929 (''Un homme se penche sur son passé, 1928) * ''The Half Breed'' /''A Martyr's Folly'' 1930 - fictionalized biography of Louis Riel (''La Bourrasque'', 1925) * ''Towards the West'',1931 (''Vers l'ouest', 1921) * ''The French Adventurer; The Life and Exploits of LaSalle'', 1931 (''Cavalier de La Salle'', 1927) * ''Forest Wild'', 1932 (Clairière, 1929 )

External links

* *
"Foreign Writers on Canada in French"
''The Canadian Encyclopedia''.

* ttp://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/constantinweyer_m.shtml Maurice C-W entry in the Manitoba Historical Society online
Maurice Constantin-Weyer entry at Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada
1881 births 1964 deaths 20th-century French male writers 20th-century French novelists Canadian writers in French French male novelists French military personnel of World War I People from Haute-Marne Prix Goncourt winners Writers from Grand Est {{France-novelist-19thC-stub