André Maurois.

His family owned a textile mill in Elbeuf, Seine-Inférieure, now Seine-Maritime, where André Maurois was born Émile Salomon Wilhelm Herzog on 26 July 1885. He attended Lycée Pierre-Corneille in Rouen, winning the Concours général prize. His upbringing in a Jewish Alsatian family influenced his later themes of identity and belonging.

Maurois adopted his pen name during World War I, when he served as a liaison officer with the British army. His first major work, Les Silences du colonel Bramble 1918, drew on his wartime experiences and established him as a writer. His biographies, including Ariel: The Life of Shelley 1923 and Byron 1930, gained him an international readership. He also wrote a biography of Marcel Proust. In 1938, he was elected to the Académie Française. He served as jury president at the Cannes Film Festival in 1951 and 1957 and as honorary president in 1965.

Maurois married Jane Wanda de Szymkiewicz in 1910; she died in 1924. Their children included Gérald Maurois and Michelle Maurois, who became an author married to Dr. Robert Naquet. In 1925 he married Simone de Caillavet, the granddaughter of Anatole France’s mistress. Through this marriage, he connected to the Belle Époque circles of Marcel Proust and Anatole France.

André Maurois’s biographical method influenced writers like Alain de Botton for blending narrative with psychological insight. He received the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour and the Ambassadors’ Prize. His works remain in print, and his role at Cannes is still noted. His biographies of literary figures made history accessible to a wide audience.