Marcel Arland
Marcel Arland was a prominent French writer and editor, whose career spanned nearly seventy years, making a significant impact on the literary landscape of France between the two world wars and beyond until his death in 1986. Born in 1899 in Varennes-sur-Amance, he was raised in a Catholic household after the early death of his father. Arland's literary journey began at the Collège Diderot and continued at the Sorbonne, where he became involved with notable literary figures and the Dadaist movement. He published his first work, *Terres étrangères*, in 1923 and won the prestigious Prix Goncourt in 1929 for *L'Ordre*, a semi-autobiographical novel.
Throughout his career, Arland authored over fifty books, including acclaimed short stories and literary essays, while also serving as an influential editor for several literary reviews. His writing evolved to reflect a more somber tone following World War II, yet he remained dedicated to exploring the uniqueness of writers through his essays. Arland received multiple accolades for his contributions to literature, including the Grand Prix de Littérature and the Grand Prix National des Lettres. His legacy is marked by both his prolific output and his commitment to the literary community, which continued until his passing.
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Marcel Arland
Writer
- Born: July 5, 1899
- Birthplace: Varennes-sur-Amance, Haute-Marne, France
- Died: January 12, 1986
- Place of death: Brinville, France
Biography
Marcel Arland was a significant man of letters in France between the two world wars, his influence continuing until his death in 1986. His prolific output of more than fifty books and countless reviews and articles spanned his whole career of nearly seventy years. In addition to writing novels and short stories, Arland was an influential editor of several literary reviews, and he finally became one of a select band of French academicians.
Arland was born in 1899 in Varennes-sur-Amance, a rural area some sixty miles east of Paris. His father, Victor, died when Arland was only three years old, and he was then brought up in a strictly Catholic way by his mother and grandparents. In 1911, his mother moved to a nearby town so that he could study at the Collège Diderot, from which he graduated in 1918. The next year, he went to Paris to study at the Sorbonne, where he became literary editor of the review L’Université de Paris. He began to mix in literary circles that included such notable writers as Marcel Proust, Jean Giraudoux, and François Mauriac, and he became involved in the burgeoning Dadaist movement, editing several Dadaist literary reviews. In 1921, he met André Malraux, with whom he became friends until Malraux’s death in 1976. In 1930, Arland married Janine Bérand, by whom he had one daughter, Dominique. He left Paris, choosing to live in rural seclusion.
Arland’s first piece of fiction was Terres étrangères (strange country), written and published in 1923. He preferred to call it a récit rather than a novel, the term covering something more focused than a novel, with perhaps a clearer moral or psychological line. He did follow this with a full-length, fairly autobiographical novel, L’Ordre (the order), which won the 1929 Prix Goncourt. In fact, a number of his fiction works retrace his own childhood—for example, La Vigie (1935; the lookout), and the short-story collection Les Vivants (1934; the living). He may best be remembered by his short stories.
By this time, Arland had broken away from all movements and was seeking his own individual voice, often expressed in the pages of the Nouvelle Revue Française. At the beginning of World War II, Arland was drafted into the military and saw some service in France and Algeria before the French surrender. He was invited to help revive the Revue under the Nazi-controlled Vichy government, but he quickly disassociated himself from it. Some years after the war, he did, in fact, revive it and remain its editor until 1977.
He continued to write fiction prolifically, though it became more somber, such as the story collection L’Eau et le feu (1956; water and fire). Several significant volumes of literary essays, including Les Échanges (1946; exchanges) and La Grâce d’écrire (1955; the gift of writing), examined what it is that makes particular writers unique. Several volumes of art criticism followed, as well as many articles for other literary journals. In 1952, Arland received the Grand Prix de Littérature from the French Academy; in 1960, the Grand Prix National des Lettres; and in 1968, he was awarded the rank Grand Officier de la Légion d’Honneur.