Henri Fauconnier
Encyclopedia
Henri Fauconnier was a French writer, known mainly for his novel, Malaysia, which won the Prix Goncourt
in 1930. He was part of the Groupe de Barbezieux
.
(1886–1969), herself an award-winning writer who received the Prix Femina
in 1933. He later sired his own son, Bernard.
. There, a journal article drew his attention, suggesting there was a fortune to made in Borneo
by planting sago
. The idea took shape: if he wanted to write, he must first become a man of leisure. The easiest way to become a man of leisure would be to first make a fortune.
, March 10, 1905. On a stopover in Singapore
, a month later, he decided to leave for the Borneo
rubber plantations of Malaysia, which seemed more promising. He got an internship at his expense to a planter Klang near Kuala Lumpur
so that he could learn the craft and the two essential languages, Malay
and Tamil
. In August, he discovered the location where he would eventually open his own plantation, in fertile land located on the distant hills beyond the Selangor River
. He obtained a grant of 600 acres (2.4 km²) and settled in Rantau Panjang
in early 1906, when he built his first "Maison des Palmes". He loved all people, places, landscapes, hard work, the climate, life and 'la vie'. His mother mobilizes funds for this rich uncle to "give" her younger sisters. Thanks to these 20,000 francs, and the funds that his friend Jacques puts into his business, he was able to begin planting. In 1908, he founded at Brussels
the "Plantation Fauconnier & Posth", with the assistance of the banker Adrian Hallet. He converted all he had in stocks and founder shares. Some friends joined the Charente
to help expand its plantations. His grew wealthy with a doubling in the price of rubber in two years and the tripling of the value of its shares in the single year 1910. He was then chief of the Hallet plantation group, in the Far East (Sumatra
, Java
, Indochina
and Malaysia). In 1911, on an idea of Hallet, he sent a few bags of seeds of palm oil
(Elaeis guineensis) from Sumatra to Malaysia which would grow into the vast plantations of Malaysia. He established Tennamaram near Rantau Panjang
, the first plantation of palm oil from Malaysia. After several visits to Malaysia, his family joined him there to settle. But, he felt that a page in his life had turned: material success was assured, and it had only been a means to an end. Keeping an eye on the plantation, he arranged to delegate his powers so that he might finally devote himself to writing.
. Fauconnier married Madeleine Meslier, the sister of a planter who was a childhood friend of Barbezieux, but refused the French Consul's request that he remain where he was to ensure the continued production of rubber. Instead, he enlisted with the other French men at the plantation. After a few months in a depot of Périgueux
(a place of prevailing squalor, stupidity, and military negligence), he arrived where he would remain as second class in most major battles except for two periods: first, for training officer school at Mourmelon-le-Grand
in late 1916, and, second, for leave
in Malaysia after his marriage in Charente
in March 1917. From there he left for a few months to Indochina
with the Annamese sharpshooters to attend Auguste Chevallier. In autumn 1917, he was reclaimed by France as an interpreter for the British army. He left his wife in Saigon, pregnant and sick. (When she returned with her daughter in April 1918, the ship which carried them in the Mediterranean was torpedoed.) Throughout the war, he cursed the Europeans and dreamed of being in Malaysia. The letters he wrote his wife in this period were published in 1998 as Letters to Madeleine, 1914-1918.
, near Chardonne
, as she was threatened with tuberculosis
. Then he left to return to the plantations, which needed his help to expand Hallet. Through 1928, he made several inspection trips to Malaysia and Indochina, bound first by a long rubber crisis. Then, to ensure a more stable income, he accepted a position as director of several companies of tropical plantations. Liking neither the city of Paris nor the climate of France, he settled in Rades
, near Tunis
, in 1925. This was, for him, a compromise of remoteness and climate between Malaysia and the Charente. He occupied "The Terrace", a large low house in Arabic style surrounded by a huge garden.
did not change Fauconnier. He kept to his usual practices. Being a writer, was not a priority for him; he saw himself as a "man of letters", and his letters show all his correspondent qualities. But he did enjoy his correspondences with other writers, including John Amrouche, Georges Bernanos
, Henri Bosco
, Jean Cocteau
, Colette
, Lucie Delarue-Mardrus
, Alfred Fabre-Luce, Paul Géraldy, André Gide
, Jean Giono
, Jean Guéhenno
, A. Guibert, Henri de Keyserling, Roger Martin du Gard
, Maurice Maeterlinck
, Jean Paulhan
, Romain Rolland
, and Jean Schlumberger
.
Fauconnier was not the only successful writer in his family; in 1933, the Prix Femina
was awarded to his sister Genevieve for her best-selling novel Claude. When she received the reward, Fauconnier and Genevieve Fauconnier became the only brother and sister in France to have ever received the Prix Goncourt and Prix Femina awards.
: he knew that Europe took the huge risk of repeating the vile war of 1914-18. He did not suffer unduly during the Depression
of the 1930s because of his resources in Malaysia, but he was troubled deeply by the rise of Nazism
, fascism
in Italy
, the conquest of Abyssinia
, and the Spanish Civil War
. In October 1938, he published anonymously a collection New Visions discussing some of his past life (it included "The Lady", "Christmas Malay", "Indian Dravidian", "Barbara", "The Asphodèles" and "Vision"). The following summer, fearing the ambitions of Benito Mussolini
on Tunisia
, he took his family from "the Terrace" to settle in Musset.
. His children grew up, and he, despite the reservations he had, repatriated to France. He was being gradually cut off from his resources in Belgium, England, Malaysia, and Indochina. He had neither the desire nor the courage to write, but preferred instead to listen to the B.B.C. The postwar period also was difficult, but in 1947 he agreed to be the leader of the "Group of Federalists Writers" for "United States of Europe". It was the hope of the group that, in reconciling the people of Europe, they might prevent its governments from claiming national missions.
In 1957, he was offered a trip to Malaysia for nostalgia's sake by a society of plantations, which had included the Socfin Rivaud Group. Afterwards, he settled into a quiet retirement during which he remained busy playing tennis and chess, gardening and swimming, dreaming of an opportunity to resume writing a sequel to Malaysia and continuing his correspondence. He divided his time between the Côte d'Azur, Paris (where his children and grandchildren lived), and the Charente
.
In April 1973, Fauconnier died in Paris. He was buried in Barbezieux. His only wish was that Musset be kept in the family.
Prix Goncourt
The Prix Goncourt is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year"...
in 1930. He was part of the Groupe de Barbezieux
Groupe de Barbezieux
The Groupe de Barbezieux joined the writers of three Charentais families, Fauconnier, Boutelleau and Delamain, who were childhood friends in the town of Barbezieux, in the Charente département, France...
.
Family
Fauconnier was the son of Charles, a brandy dealer who operated on his property near Cru Chevanceaux, and Melanie. Melanie Fauconnier lived in Limoges, where she was the best friend of Anna Haviland of Haviland porcelain. Haviland had arranged the 1874 marriage between the pair after she had married George Boutelleau, Barbezilien poet, playwright and novelist. (His family produced and promoted brandy butter Charente.) Fauconnier was the third of six children. His siblings included Genevieve FauconnierGeneviève Fauconnier
Geneviève Fauconnier was a French novelist who lived in the south of the Charente département, . She was one of the most sensitive members of the so called Groupe de Barbezieux...
(1886–1969), herself an award-winning writer who received the Prix Femina
Prix Femina
The Prix Femina is a French literary prize created in 1904 by 22 writers for the magazine La Vie heureuse . The prize is decided each year by an exclusively female jury, although the authors of the winning works do not have to be women...
in 1933. He later sired his own son, Bernard.
In Barbezieux
In a cultured, artistic Catholic family of six children, Fauconnier lived very freely with his siblings, cousins and friends in the garden and cellars of Musset. His friend Jacques Boutelleau (who would later be known under the pen name Jacques Chardonne following the publication of The Epithalame in 1921) came every day. They published a newspaper, and dramas were played on the castle square with text and music written by Fauconnier. In 1901, Fauconnier's father died following a long illness, and Fauconnier left Bordeaux for England, where he taught French music for two years in the small college of Wells HouseWells House
- United States :*Wells House , a property listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Arizona*John Wells, Jr. House, in West Hartford, Connecticut, listed on the NRHP in Connecticut...
. There, a journal article drew his attention, suggesting there was a fortune to made in Borneo
Borneo
Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....
by planting sago
Sago
Sago is a starch extracted in the spongy center or pith, of various tropical palm stems, Metroxylon sagu. It is a major staple food for the lowland peoples of New Guinea and the Moluccas, where it is called saksak and sagu. A type of flour, called sago flour, is made from sago. The largest supply...
. The idea took shape: if he wanted to write, he must first become a man of leisure. The easiest way to become a man of leisure would be to first make a fortune.
Malaysia
He left from MarseilleMarseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
, March 10, 1905. On a stopover in Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, a month later, he decided to leave for the Borneo
Borneo
Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....
rubber plantations of Malaysia, which seemed more promising. He got an internship at his expense to a planter Klang near Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...
so that he could learn the craft and the two essential languages, Malay
Malay language
Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...
and Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
. In August, he discovered the location where he would eventually open his own plantation, in fertile land located on the distant hills beyond the Selangor River
Selangor River
Selangor River is a major river in Selangor, Malaysia. It runs from Kuala Kubu Bharu in the east and empties into the Straits of Malacca at Kuala Selangor in the west....
. He obtained a grant of 600 acres (2.4 km²) and settled in Rantau Panjang
Rantau Panjang
Rantau Panjang is a town and also a parliamentary constituency in Kelantan which is located near the Malaysia-Thailand Border. Across the border is Sungai Golok, Thailand.Banks in Rantau PanjangMaybank, Bank Simpanan Nasional and Agro Bank Malaysia....
in early 1906, when he built his first "Maison des Palmes". He loved all people, places, landscapes, hard work, the climate, life and 'la vie'. His mother mobilizes funds for this rich uncle to "give" her younger sisters. Thanks to these 20,000 francs, and the funds that his friend Jacques puts into his business, he was able to begin planting. In 1908, he founded at Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
the "Plantation Fauconnier & Posth", with the assistance of the banker Adrian Hallet. He converted all he had in stocks and founder shares. Some friends joined the Charente
Charente
Charente is a department in southwestern France, in the Poitou-Charentes region, named after the Charente River, the most important river in the department, and also the river beside which the department's two largest towns, Angoulême and Cognac, are sited.-History:Charente is one of the original...
to help expand its plantations. His grew wealthy with a doubling in the price of rubber in two years and the tripling of the value of its shares in the single year 1910. He was then chief of the Hallet plantation group, in the Far East (Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...
, Java
Java
Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...
, Indochina
Indochina
The Indochinese peninsula, is a region in Southeast Asia. It lies roughly southwest of China, and east of India. The name has its origins in the French, Indochine, as a combination of the names of "China" and "India", and was adopted when French colonizers in Vietnam began expanding their territory...
and Malaysia). In 1911, on an idea of Hallet, he sent a few bags of seeds of palm oil
Palm oil
Palm oil, coconut oil and palm kernel oil are edible plant oils derived from the fruits of palm trees. Palm oil is extracted from the pulp of the fruit of the oil palm Elaeis guineensis; palm kernel oil is derived from the kernel of the oil palm and coconut oil is derived from the kernel of the...
(Elaeis guineensis) from Sumatra to Malaysia which would grow into the vast plantations of Malaysia. He established Tennamaram near Rantau Panjang
Rantau Panjang
Rantau Panjang is a town and also a parliamentary constituency in Kelantan which is located near the Malaysia-Thailand Border. Across the border is Sungai Golok, Thailand.Banks in Rantau PanjangMaybank, Bank Simpanan Nasional and Agro Bank Malaysia....
, the first plantation of palm oil from Malaysia. After several visits to Malaysia, his family joined him there to settle. But, he felt that a page in his life had turned: material success was assured, and it had only been a means to an end. Keeping an eye on the plantation, he arranged to delegate his powers so that he might finally devote himself to writing.
World War I and marriage
But nobody expected World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Fauconnier married Madeleine Meslier, the sister of a planter who was a childhood friend of Barbezieux, but refused the French Consul's request that he remain where he was to ensure the continued production of rubber. Instead, he enlisted with the other French men at the plantation. After a few months in a depot of Périgueux
Périgueux
Périgueux is a commune in the Dordogne department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.Périgueux is the prefecture of the department and the capital of the region...
(a place of prevailing squalor, stupidity, and military negligence), he arrived where he would remain as second class in most major battles except for two periods: first, for training officer school at Mourmelon-le-Grand
Mourmelon-le-Grand
Mourmelon-le-Grand is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France.-Camp Châlons:'Camp Châlons' is a military camp of circa 10,000 hectares nearby Mourmelon-le-Grand...
in late 1916, and, second, for leave
Leave (military)
In military, leave is a permission to be away from one's unit, either for a specified or unspecified period of time.The term AWOL, standing for absent without leave, is a term for desertion used in armed forces of many English speaking countries....
in Malaysia after his marriage in Charente
Charente
Charente is a department in southwestern France, in the Poitou-Charentes region, named after the Charente River, the most important river in the department, and also the river beside which the department's two largest towns, Angoulême and Cognac, are sited.-History:Charente is one of the original...
in March 1917. From there he left for a few months to Indochina
Indochina
The Indochinese peninsula, is a region in Southeast Asia. It lies roughly southwest of China, and east of India. The name has its origins in the French, Indochine, as a combination of the names of "China" and "India", and was adopted when French colonizers in Vietnam began expanding their territory...
with the Annamese sharpshooters to attend Auguste Chevallier. In autumn 1917, he was reclaimed by France as an interpreter for the British army. He left his wife in Saigon, pregnant and sick. (When she returned with her daughter in April 1918, the ship which carried them in the Mediterranean was torpedoed.) Throughout the war, he cursed the Europeans and dreamed of being in Malaysia. The letters he wrote his wife in this period were published in 1998 as Letters to Madeleine, 1914-1918.
In Tunisia
After he was discharged, he left his wife in SwitzerlandSwitzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, near Chardonne
Chardonne
Chardonne is a municipality in the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.-Geography:Chardonne has an area, , of . Of this area, or 46.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 37.0% is forested...
, as she was threatened with tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
. Then he left to return to the plantations, which needed his help to expand Hallet. Through 1928, he made several inspection trips to Malaysia and Indochina, bound first by a long rubber crisis. Then, to ensure a more stable income, he accepted a position as director of several companies of tropical plantations. Liking neither the city of Paris nor the climate of France, he settled in Rades
Radès
Radès is a harbour city in Ben Arous Governorate, Tunisia. Situated 9 kilometres south-east of the capital Tunis, some consider it a Tunis suburb, and parts of the harbour installations of Tunis are located in Radès....
, near Tunis
Tunis
Tunis is the capital of both the Tunisian Republic and the Tunis Governorate. It is Tunisia's largest city, with a population of 728,453 as of 2004; the greater metropolitan area holds some 2,412,500 inhabitants....
, in 1925. This was, for him, a compromise of remoteness and climate between Malaysia and the Charente. He occupied "The Terrace", a large low house in Arabic style surrounded by a huge garden.
Malaysia and the Prix Goncourt
In 1931, Jean Paulhan offered to publish Fauconnier's book on Malaysia, enthusiastic about the chapter Fauconnier had displayed. Malaysia, published by Stock, proved very popular and highly respected. But the celebrity that attended on its publication and his winning of the Prix GoncourtPrix Goncourt
The Prix Goncourt is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year"...
did not change Fauconnier. He kept to his usual practices. Being a writer, was not a priority for him; he saw himself as a "man of letters", and his letters show all his correspondent qualities. But he did enjoy his correspondences with other writers, including John Amrouche, Georges Bernanos
Georges Bernanos
Georges Bernanos was a French author, and a soldier in World War I. Of Roman Catholic and monarchist leanings, he was a violent adversary to bourgeois thought and to what he identified as defeatism leading to France's defeat in 1940.-Biography:Bernanos was born at Paris, into a family of...
, Henri Bosco
Henri Bosco
Henri Bosco was a French writer.Bosco was born in Avignon, Vaucluse into a family of Piedmontese origin. Through his father, he was related to Saint John Bosco, of whom he wrote a biography. His novels for adults and children provide a sensitive evocation of Provençal life...
, Jean Cocteau
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...
, Colette
Colette
Colette was the surname of the French novelist and performer Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette . She is best known for her novel Gigi, upon which Lerner and Loewe based the stage and film musical comedies of the same title.-Early life and marriage:Colette was born to retired military officer Jules-Joseph...
, Lucie Delarue-Mardrus
Lucie Delarue-Mardrus
Lucie Delarue-Mardrus was a French journalist, poet, novelist, sculptor, historian and designer...
, Alfred Fabre-Luce, Paul Géraldy, André Gide
André Gide
André Paul Guillaume Gide was a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1947. Gide's career ranged from its beginnings in the symbolist movement, to the advent of anticolonialism between the two World Wars.Known for his fiction as well as his autobiographical works, Gide...
, Jean Giono
Jean Giono
Jean Giono was a French author who wrote works of fiction set in the Provence region of France.-First period:...
, Jean Guéhenno
Jean Guéhenno
Marcel-Jules-Marie Guéhenno, known as Jean Guéhenno was a French essayist, writer and literary critic....
, A. Guibert, Henri de Keyserling, Roger Martin du Gard
Roger Martin du Gard
Roger Martin du Gard was a French author and winner of the 1937 Nobel Prize for Literature. Trained as a paleographer and archivist, Martin du Gard brought to his works a spirit of objectivity and a scrupulous regard for details...
, Maurice Maeterlinck
Maurice Maeterlinck
Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck, also called Comte Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who wrote in French. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911. The main themes in his work are death and the meaning of life...
, Jean Paulhan
Jean Paulhan
Jean Paulhan was a French writer, literary critic and publisher, director of the literary magazine Nouvelle Revue Française from 1925 to 1940 and from 1946 to 1968. He was a member of the Académie Française...
, Romain Rolland
Romain Rolland
Romain Rolland was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915.-Biography:...
, and Jean Schlumberger
Jean Schlumberger
Jean Schlumberger was a French writer and journalist.-Biography:He was the son of Jean Schlumberger, the scion of a textile manufacturing family of German origin, and Marguerite de Witt, the granddaughter of François Guizot...
.
Fauconnier was not the only successful writer in his family; in 1933, the Prix Femina
Prix Femina
The Prix Femina is a French literary prize created in 1904 by 22 writers for the magazine La Vie heureuse . The prize is decided each year by an exclusively female jury, although the authors of the winning works do not have to be women...
was awarded to his sister Genevieve for her best-selling novel Claude. When she received the reward, Fauconnier and Genevieve Fauconnier became the only brother and sister in France to have ever received the Prix Goncourt and Prix Femina awards.
Visions
Fauconnier had hated the Treaty of VersaillesTreaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
: he knew that Europe took the huge risk of repeating the vile war of 1914-18. He did not suffer unduly during the Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
of the 1930s because of his resources in Malaysia, but he was troubled deeply by the rise of Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
, fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, the conquest of Abyssinia
Ethiopian Empire
The Ethiopian Empire also known as Abyssinia, covered a geographical area that the present-day northern half of Ethiopia and Eritrea covers, and included in its peripheries Zeila, Djibouti, Yemen and Western Saudi Arabia...
, and the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
. In October 1938, he published anonymously a collection New Visions discussing some of his past life (it included "The Lady", "Christmas Malay", "Indian Dravidian", "Barbara", "The Asphodèles" and "Vision"). The following summer, fearing the ambitions of Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
on Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
, he took his family from "the Terrace" to settle in Musset.
The World War II and the last years
Life was not easy during World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. His children grew up, and he, despite the reservations he had, repatriated to France. He was being gradually cut off from his resources in Belgium, England, Malaysia, and Indochina. He had neither the desire nor the courage to write, but preferred instead to listen to the B.B.C. The postwar period also was difficult, but in 1947 he agreed to be the leader of the "Group of Federalists Writers" for "United States of Europe". It was the hope of the group that, in reconciling the people of Europe, they might prevent its governments from claiming national missions.
In 1957, he was offered a trip to Malaysia for nostalgia's sake by a society of plantations, which had included the Socfin Rivaud Group. Afterwards, he settled into a quiet retirement during which he remained busy playing tennis and chess, gardening and swimming, dreaming of an opportunity to resume writing a sequel to Malaysia and continuing his correspondence. He divided his time between the Côte d'Azur, Paris (where his children and grandchildren lived), and the Charente
Charente
Charente is a department in southwestern France, in the Poitou-Charentes region, named after the Charente River, the most important river in the department, and also the river beside which the department's two largest towns, Angoulême and Cognac, are sited.-History:Charente is one of the original...
.
In April 1973, Fauconnier died in Paris. He was buried in Barbezieux. His only wish was that Musset be kept in the family.
Works
- Malasia Artes Gráficas Larra, 1931
- Visions Stock (Delamain et Boutelleau), 1938
- Lettres à Madeleine: 1914-1919, Stock, 1998, ISBN 9782234050563
English Translations
- Malaisie, Translated by Eric Sutton, The Macmillan company, 1931
- The soul of Malaya Translated by Eric Sutton E. Mathews and Marrot, 1931
Sources
- Bernard Fauconnier, La fascinante existence d'Henri Fauconnier : Prix Goncourt 1930, préface Jean-Loup Avril, Editions G.D., Saint Malo, 2004.
- Annie David, interview de Bernard Fauconnier, son of Henri, Trente ans après la mort d'Henri Fauconnier, son fils Bernard évoque sa vie exotique et leurs relations houleuses... .
- Véronique Bonnet-Nora, La Maison des Palmes, 2003, documentaire de 50 minutes.