François Mauriac
François Charles Mauriac (French: [fʁɑ̃swa ʃaʁl(ə) moʁjak]; Occitan: Francés Carles Mauriac; 11 October 1885 – 1 September 1970) was a French novelist, dramatist, critic, poet, and journalist, a member of the Académie française (from 1933), and laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature (1952). He was awarded the Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur in 1958.
Also recorded as François Charles Mauriac · Francois Mauriac · Francois Charles Mauriac · Fransua Moris
François Mauriac

Njal · In the collection of the Mauriac family. On display at: The Jeanne François-Mauriac Exhibition, Red Wine Cellars, François Mauriac Centre at Malagar, Saint-Maixant, Gironde. · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Full name
- Charles François Mauriac.
- Born
- 1885. · Bordeaux.
- Died
- 1970. · Paris.
- Nationality
- France.
- Occupation
- writer, journalist, poet, novelist, playwright, screenwriter, literary critic and biographer.
- Fields
- creative and professional writing, journalism, poetry and literary criticism.
- Education
- École des chartes, Sainte-Marie Grand Lebrun and University of Bordeaux.
- Known for
- Thérèse Desqueyroux, Le Désert de l'amour, Vipers' Tangle, Le mystère Frontenac, Questions of Precedence, La Fin de la nuit and The Dark Angels.
- Honours
- Nobel Prize in Literature, Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française, Prix Émile Augier and Grand Prize for the Best Novels of the Half-Century.
- Languages
- French.
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Documentary summary
François Charles Mauriac (French: [fʁɑ̃swa ʃaʁl(ə) moʁjak]; Occitan: Francés Carles Mauriac; 11 October 1885 – 1 September 1970) was a French novelist, dramatist, critic, poet, and journalist, a member of the Académie française (from 1933), and laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature (1952). He was awarded the Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur in 1958.
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gnd · 3004412-1 · wikidata · Q81685 · wikipedia · François Mauriac
In this article
Early life and education
Early life and education
François Mauriac studied at École des chartes, Sainte-Marie Grand Lebrun and University of Bordeaux. The recorded working language is French. The field of work recorded is creative and professional writing, journalism and poetry. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are memoir and essay. Maurice Barrès is recorded as an influence. Positions recorded include seat 22 of the Académie française and president of the Société des gens de lettres. Works named in the authority record are Thérèse Desqueyroux, Le Désert de l'amour, Vipers' Tangle, Le mystère Frontenac, Questions of Precedence and La Fin de la nuit. Distinctions recorded are Nobel Prize in Literature, Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française and Prix Émile Augier.
François Charles Mauriac was born on 11 October 1885 in Bordeaux, France. He studied literature at the University of Bordeaux, graduating in 1905, after which he moved to Paris and briefly studied at the École des Chartes in 1908.
Career
Career
On 1 June 1933, he was elected a member of the Académie française, succeeding Eugène Brieux. A former Action française supporter, he turned to the left during the Spanish Civil War, criticising the Catholic Church for its support of Franco. After the fall of France to the Axis during the Second World War, he briefly supported the collaborationist régime of Marshal Pétain, but joined the Resistance as early as December 1941. He was the only member of the Académie française to publish a Resistance text with the Editions de Minuit. Mauriac had a bitter dispute with Albert Camus immediately following the Liberation of France. At that time, Camus edited the Resistance paper Combat (thereafter an overt daily, until 1947), while Mauriac wrote a column for Le Figaro. Camus said newly liberated France should purge all Nazi collaborator elements, but Mauriac warned that such disputes should be set aside in the interests of national reconciliation. Mauriac also doubted that justice would be impartial or dispassionate, given the emotional turmoil of the Liberation. Despite having been viciously criticised by Robert Brasillach, he campaigned against his execution. He published a series of personal memoirs and a biography of Charles de Gaulle. Mauriac's complete works were published in twelve volumes between 1950 and 1956. He encouraged Elie Wiesel to write about his experiences as a Jewish teenager during the Holocaust, and wrote the foreword to Elie Wiesel's book Night. Mauriac also had a bitter public dispute with Roger Peyrefitte, who criticised the Vatican in books such as Les Clés de saint Pierre (1953). Mauriac threatened to resign from the paper he was working with at the time (L'Express) if they did not stop carrying advertisements for Peyrefitte's books. The quarrel was exacerbated by the release of the film adaptation of Peyrefitte's Les Amitiés particulières, and culminated in a virulent open letter by Peyrefitte in which he accused Mauriac of homosexual tendencies and called him a Tartuffe, hypocrite. Mauriac was opposed to French rule in Vietnam, and strongly condemned the use of torture by the French army in Algeria.
Personal life
Personal life
He was the father of writer Claude Mauriac and grandfather of Anne Wiazemsky, a French actress and author who worked with and married French director Jean-Luc Godard.
Novels, novellas and short stories
Novels, novellas and short stories
1913 – L'Enfant chargé de chaînes («Young Man in Chains», tr. 1961) 1914 – La Robe prétexte («The Stuff of Youth», tr. 1960) 1920 – La Chair et le Sang («Flesh and Blood», tr. 1954) 1921 – Préséances («Questions of Precedence», tr. 1958) 1922 – Le Baiser au lépreux («The Kiss for the Leper», tr. 1923 / «A Kiss for the Leper», tr. 1950) 1923 – Le Fleuve de feu («The River of Fire», tr. 1954) 1923 – Génitrix («Genetrix», tr. 1950) 1923 – Le Mal («The Enemy», tr. 1949) 1925 – Le Désert de l'amour («The Desert of Love», tr. 1949) (Awarded the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française, 1926.) 1927 – Thérèse Desqueyroux («Thérèse», tr. 1928 / «Thérèse Desqueyroux», tr. 1947 and 2005) 1928 – Destins («Destinies», tr. 1929 / «Lines of Life», tr. 1957) 1929 – Trois Récits A volume of three stories: Coups de couteau, 1926; Un homme de lettres, 1926; Le Démon de la connaissance, 1928 1930 – Ce qui était perdu («Suspicion», tr. 1931 / «That Which Was Lost», tr. 1951) 1932 – Le Nœud de vipères («Vipers' Tangle», tr. 1933 / «The Knot of Vipers», tr. 1951) 1933 – Le Mystère Frontenac («The Frontenac Mystery», tr. 1951 / «The Frontenacs», tr. 1961) 1935 – La Fin de la nuit («The End of the Night», tr. 1947) 1936 – Les Anges noirs («The Dark Angels», tr. 1951 / «The Mask of Innocence», tr. 1953) 1938 – Plongées A volume of five stories: Thérèse chez le docteur, 1933 («Thérèse and the Doctor», tr. 1947); Thérèse à l'hôtel, 1933 («Thérèse at the Hotel», tr. 1947); Le Rang; Insomnie; Conte de Noël. 1939 – Les Chemins de la mer («The Unknown Sea», tr. 1948) 1941 – La Pharisienne («A Woman of Pharisees», tr. 1946) 1951 – Le Sagouin («The Weakling», tr. 1952 / «The Little Misery», tr. 1952) (A novella) 1952 – Galigaï («The Loved and the Unloved», tr. 1953) 1954 – L'Agneau («The Lamb», tr. 1955) 1969 – Un adolescent d'autrefois («Maltaverne», tr. 1970) 1972 – Maltaverne (the unfinished sequel to the previous novel; posthumously published)
Plays
Plays
1938 – Asmodée («Asmodée; or, The Intruder», tr. 1939 / «Asmodée: A Drama in Three Acts», tr. 1957) 1945 – Les Mal Aimés 1948 – Passage du malin 1951 – Le Feu sur terre
Poetry
Poetry
1909 – Les Mains jointes 1911 – L'Adieu à l'Adolescence 1925 – Orages 1940 – Le Sang d'Atys
Memoirs
Memoirs
1931 – Holy Thursday: an Intimate Remembrance 1960 – Mémoires intérieurs 1962 – Ce Que Je Crois 1964 – Soirée Tu Danse
Biography
Biography
1937 – Life of Jesus 1964 - De Gaulle de François Mauriac (French edition), 1966 English -(Doubleday)
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
Explore 1885–1970
The full dated record · 3 entries
1885
François Mauriac born at Bordeaux.
1965
FRANCOIS MAURIAC. ESSAI DE BIBLIOGRAPHIE CHRONOLOGIE 1908 - 1960 (1965) is digitised and catalogued by Internet Archive.
1970
François Mauriac died at Paris.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Bordeaux.
Birth place
Paris.
Death place
Death and legacy
Death and legacy
Mauriac died in Paris on 1 September 1970, and was interred in the Cimetière de Vemars, Val d'Oise, France. His former home, the Domaine de Malagar (Malagar Estate), around 50 km (31 mi) south of Bordeaux, France, is now an historic site, which houses the Centre François Mauriac. There are two literary prizes awarded annually that honour Mauriac: Prix François Mauriac, awarded by the Académie Française since 1994 Prix Francois-Mauriac de la région Aquitaine, originally founded in 1985 and revived after an hiatus in 2002, awarded by the Aquitaine regional authority at the Centre François Mauriac at Malagar
Essays and criticism
Essays and criticism
1919 – Petits Essais de Psychologie Religieuse: De quelques coeurs inquiets. Paris: Societe litteraire de France. 1919. 1936 - "God and Mammon" in ‘Essays in Order: New Series, No. 1’. Edited by Christopher Dawson and Bernard Wall. Published in London by Sheed & Ward 1961 – Second Thoughts: Reflections on literature and on Life (tr. by Adrienne Foulke). Darwen Finlayson François Mauriac on Race, War, Politics, and Religion: The Great War Through the 1960s. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press. 2016. ISBN 978-0-8132-2789-4. Edited and translated by Nathan Bracher.

Studio photo
Studio Harcourt · RMN
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q81685: François Mauriac
Reputable secondary · Wikimedia Foundation
- “François Mauriac”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
scholarly publication
- François Mauriac, journaliste, 2011
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2011
authority file
- Gemeinsame Normdatei 3004412-1, Association européenne François Mauriac.
Unverified · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Awards and honours
In 1952, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for the deep spiritual insight and the artistic intensity with which he has in his novels penetrated the drama of human life". He was awarded the Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur in 1958. Other honours and awards include: 1926 — Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française 1933 — Member of the Académie française 1958 — Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.François Mauriac History Research Starters EBSCO Research. EBSCO.
- 2.Cf. Académie française, Les immortels: François Mauriac (1885–1970)
- 3.Sibalis, Michael D. Peyrefitte, Roger. 2006.
- 4.Cf. The Nobel Foundation, The Nobel Prize in Literature 1952: François Mauriac
- 5.Cf. Académie française, Les immortels: François Mauriac (1885–1970)
- 6.At Malagar, where culture rhymes with transmission. 2 August 2024.
- 7.L'Écriture - Le Prix François Mauriac. Centre François Mauriac.
- 8.Prix François Mauriac. Académie française. 19 June 2012.
- 9.Prix François Mauriac 2025. Culture Nouvelle Aquitaine. 25 September 2025.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 3
- Scott, Malcolm (1980), Mauriac: The Politics of a Novelist, Scottish Academic Press,
- Dudley Edwards, Owen (1982), review of Mauriac: The Politics of a Novelist by Malcolm Scott, in Murray, Glen (ed.), Cencrastus No. 8, Spring 1982, pp. 46 & 47,
- Mauriac, Caroline (1981), François Mauriac: Lettres d'une vie (1904–1969), Éditions Grasset
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
scholarly publication
François Mauriac, journaliste, 2011Crossref registry
Verifiedauthority file
Gemeinsame Normdatei 3004412-1, Association européenne François Mauriac.Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Partially resolvedreference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q81685: François MauriacWikimedia Foundation
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
People, houses and institutions
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Died at
1- ParisPlace
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
38,661 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
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- François NourissierAuthor
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