Maurice Genevoix (; 29 November 1890 – 8 September 1980) was a French author.
Life
Born on 29 November 1890 at
Decize
Decize is a commune in the Nièvre department in central France.
Geography
The town is situated on a former island in the Loire ("en Loire assise") at the confluence of the Aron river. The right channel of the Loire was dammed up to reclaim land ...
,
Nièvre
Nièvre () is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, central-east France. Named after the river Nièvre, it had a population of 204,452 in 2019.Châteauneuf-sur-Loire
Châteauneuf-sur-Loire () is a commune in the Loiret department in north-central France.
Population
Twin towns
* Amarante, Portugal
* Bad Laasphe, Germany
See also
* Communes of the Loiret department
The following is the list of the 325 ...
. After attending the local school, he studied at the lycée of
Orléans
Orléans (;"Orleans" (US) and Lycée Lakanal. Genevoix was accepted to the Ecole Normale Supérieure, being first in his class, but was soon mobilized into
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 ...
in 1914. He was quickly promoted to a lieutenant. He participated in the bloody battles of the Les Éparges hill as well as along the road of Tranchée de Calonne to the south east of
Verdun-sur-Meuse
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 ...
in late 1914 and early 1915. On the 25 April 1915 he was severely wounded in action in his left arm and side in the Tranchée de Calonne sector and returned to Paris. The battle in the
Meuse
The Meuse ( , , , ; wa, Moûze ) or Maas ( , ; li, Maos or ) is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a t ...
in which he participated, especially those at Les Éparges left a profound influence on him, and he wrote the tetralogy ''Ceux de 14'' (The Men of 1914), which brought him recognition among the public.
Around 1919, Genevoix contracted
Spanish influenza
The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...
, causing him to move back to the
Loire
The Loire (, also ; ; oc, Léger, ; la, Liger) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône ...
. He was quite prolific during his time in the Loire area, earning a
Prix Blumenthal
The Prix Blumenthal (or ''Blumenthal Prize'') was a grant or stipend awarded through the philanthropy of Florence Meyer Blumenthal (1875–1930) – and the foundation she created, ''Fondation franco-américaine Florence Blumenthal (Franco-Amer ...
grant from the Florence Blumenthal Foundation to support him as a professional writer. It was this grant that allowed him to continue with some of his most celebrated works, ''Rémi des Rauches'' and '' Raboliot'', the latter of which earned him the
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 ...
.
In 1928, his father died, and Genevoix moved to Vernelles in
Loiret
Loiret (; ) is a department in the Centre-Val de Loire region of north-central France. It takes its name from the river Loiret, which is contained wholly within the department. In 2019, Loiret had a population of 680,434.< ...
. At around this time, Genevoix started to travel abroad to
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
,
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...
,
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, and
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
. Canada and Africa were both admired by the writer, the latter of which he dedicated a 1949 essay to it, ''Afrique blanche, Afrique noire''. He was elected to the Académie française on 24 October 1946 and was formally inducted the following year. In 1950, he returned to Paris and became secretary of the Académie française in 1958. In 1970, Genevoix, who was president of the program committee of French state radio, started a television series on French writers. He was also offered the Grand prix national des Lettres. He died on 8 September 1980 and was buried in
Passy Cemetery
Passy Cemetery (french: Cimetière de Passy) is a small cemetery in Passy, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France.
History
The current cemetery replaced the old cemetery (''l'ancien cimetière communal de Passy'', located on Rue Lekain), ...
.
Genevoix presided over the
Friends of the Natural History Museum Paris
The Friends of the Natural History Museum (French: Société des Amis du Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle et du Jardin des Plantes or ''Les Amis du Muséum'') is a French non-profit organisation (association loi 1901), created in 1907 and r ...
society for ten years from 1970 to 1980.Yves Laissus, "Cent ans d'histoire", ''1907-2007 - Les Amis du Muséum'', centennial special, September 2007, supplement to the quarterly publication '' Les Amis du Muséum national d'histoire naturelle'', n° 230, June 2007, ISSN 1161-9104 . The Académie française literary Prix Maurice Genevoix is named for him.
On 11 November 2020, Genevoix' remains were transferred to the
Panthéon
The Panthéon (, from the Classical Greek word , , ' empleto all the gods') is a monument in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. It stands in the Latin Quarter, atop the , in the centre of the , which was named after it. The edifice was b ...
Verdun Memorial
The Verdun Memorial is a war memorial to commemorate the Battle of Verdun, fought in 1916 as part of the First World War. It is situated on the battlefield, close to the destroyed village of Fleury-devant-Douaumont in the ''département'' of Meu ...