André Maurois

André Maurois, or Emile Salomon Wilhelm Herzog (1885 – 1967) was a French author and man of letters. André Maurois was a pen name which became his legal name in 1947.

He was born in Elbeuf in Alsace and educated in Rouen in Normandy.

During World War I he joined the French army and he served as an interpreter and later a liaison officer in the British army. His first novel Les silences du colonel Bramble was a witty but socially realistic account of that experience. It was an immediate success in France. It was translated and also became popular in the United Kingdom and other English speaking countries as The Silence of Colonel Bramble. Many of his other works have been translated in English, because they often dealt with British figures or topics, like his biographies of Disraeli, Lord Byron or Shelley.

He became a member of the Académie française in 1938. During World War II he served in the French army and the Free French Forces.

He died in 1967 after a long career as an author of novels, biographies, histories, and children’s books. He is buried in the Neuilly-sur-Seine community cemetery near Paris.