Maurice Druon
Maurice Druon was a prominent French writer and intellectual, born in Paris in 1918 to a diverse heritage that included roots in Languedoc, Flanders, Brazil, and Russia. He pursued higher education at the Faculte des Lettres and the École des Sciences Politiques before being thrust into the tumult of World War II. Joining the French Cavalry in 1940, he later fled to Britain to join General Charles de Gaulle's Free French Forces, where he contributed to the Resistance by co-writing the famous war song "Chant des Partisans." After the war, Druon established his literary career, producing numerous novels, plays, and children's fiction. His notable works include the trilogy "La Fin des hommes" and the acclaimed series "Les Rois maudits," which explores the tumultuous history of France's monarchy. Throughout his career, Druon received numerous honors, including membership in the French Academy and serving as minister of cultural affairs. His legacy reflects a blend of artistic achievement and civic engagement, as he was also active in politics. Druon remained a devoted French patriot, living in Paris until his later years.
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Maurice Druon
- Born: April 23, 1918
- Birthplace: Paris, France
- Died: April 14, 2009
- Place of death: Paris, France
Biography
Maurice Samuel Roger Charles Druon was born in Paris in 1918. His forebears come not only from Languedoc but from Flanders, Brazil, and Russia, a remarkable mixture for a model French intellectual. His higher education included study at the Faculte des Lettres and the École des Sciences Politiques.
Scarcely had he entered adulthood when World War II swept the young scholar into drama and danger. Joining the French Cavalry as an officer in 1940, the next year he fled from occupied France through Spain to join General Charles de Gaulle’s Free French Forces in Britain. During the next two years, he launched his career there under extraordinary circumstances. With his uncle Joseph Kessel, he wrote the words to a famous war song of the Resistance, the “Chant des Partisans.” It was a hymn to unite and identify men fighting in secret, at the same time inspiring them. Its coded opening “Friend, do you hear the black flight of the crows on the plain,” worked as a rallying cry for the “army of shadows” fighting Hitler. Among other projects, Druon worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), broadcasting to occupied France during the war.
Upon returning to France, he launched a string of novels whose very titles reflect the concerns of a continent at war, starting with La Derniere Brigade, which appeared in 1946. His trilogy, La Fin des hommes, also came out of the early postwar period; the trilogy’s first book, Les Grandes Families (1948), won the prestigious Prix Goncourt in 1948. At the same time, he was writing plays, short stories, and even fiction for children.
In the fifty years that followed, Druon completed an impressive body of work, producing scholarly writing and linguistic studies as well as more accessible fiction. His scholarly work brought him the pinnacle of French literary honors—membership in the French Academy. His fiction gained a popular following, especially his series of seven novels entitled Les Rois maudits (the accursed kings), about France’s Philip the Fair and his descendants. The books’ style is straightforward and unemotional, so that even horrific events—of which there were many during these reigns—do not evoke the same strong reader-reaction that another writer’s work might.
Druon has collected many honors during his long and distinguished career, including serving as chairman of the French Academy. In addition to numerous awards for his literary endeavors, Druon has participated in politics. He served as minister of cultural affairs under Pierre Messmer during 1973- 1974, and as a deputy of Paris from 1978 to 1981. Druon lives in a spacious apartment on the Left Bank in Paris. He remains a French patriot whose life of intellectual and creative achievement was punctuated by equal activity in the arena of public affairs.