Paul Morand was a French diplomat

Diplomat

A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...

, novelist, playwright

Playwright

A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

 and poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

, considered an early Modernist

Modernism

Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...

.

He was a graduate of the Paris Institute of Political Studies (better known as Sciences Po). During the pre-war period, he wrote many short books which are noted for their elegance of style, erudition, narrative concision, and for the author's observation of the countries he visited combined with his upper class

Upper class

In social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...

 views.

Morand's reputation has been marred by his stance during the Second World War, when he collaborated

Collaborationism

Collaborationism is cooperation with enemy forces against one's country. Legally, it may be considered as a form of treason. Collaborationism may be associated with criminal deeds in the service of the occupying power, which may include complicity with the occupying power in murder, persecutions,...

 with the Vichy regime and was a vocal anti-Semite

Anti-Semitism

Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...

. When the Second World War ended, Morand served as an ambassador in Bern, but his position was revoked and he lived in exile in Switzerland.

Post-war, he was a patron of the Hussards literary movement

Hussards (literary movement)

The Hussards was a French literary movement in the 1950s which opposed Existentialism and the figure of the politically engaged intellectual as personified by Jean-Paul Sartre.-Origins:...

, which opposed Existentialism

Existentialism

Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...

. Morand went on to become a member of the Académie française

Académie française

L'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution,...

; his candidature was initially rejected by Charles de Gaulle

Charles de Gaulle

Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....

, the only instance of a President ever exercising his right to veto electees to the academy. Morand was finally elected ten years later, though he still had to forgo the official investiture.

Paul Morand was a friend of Marcel Proust

Marcel Proust

Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental À la recherche du temps perdu...

 and has left valuable observations about him.

Books

• Fouquet ou Le Soleil offusqué, éditions Gallimard
  Éditions Gallimard
  Éditions Gallimard is one of the leading French publishers of books. The Guardian has described it as having "the best backlist in the world". In 2003 it and its subsidiaries published 1418 titles....
  
  , Paris
  Paris
  Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
  
  , 1961.
• Ouvert la nuit (1922)
• Fermé la nuit (1923)
• L'Europe galante
• Bucarest(1935)
• L'Homme pressé (1941)
• Le Bazar de la Charité (1944)
• Venises (1970)
• Journal inutile (mémoires, en 2 volumes, 2002)
  • Rien que la terre,
  • Magie noire (1927),
  • Paris-Tombouctou,
  • New York (1929),
  • Champions du monde (1930),
  • Papiers d'identité (1930),
  • Air indien,
  • Londres,
  • Rococo,
  • La Route des Indes,
  • L'heure qu'il est, chroniques de cet infatigable voyageur.
• Le Dernier Jour de l'Inquisition,
• Le Flagellant de Séville,
• Le Coucou et le Roitelet,
• L'Eau sous les ponts,
• Hécate et ses chiens,
• La Folle amoureuse,
• Fin de siècle,(1957)
• Nouvelles d'une vie,
• Les Écarts amoureux

External links

• Bibliography from the Académie française
• Album of book covers of his works
• Université McGill: le roman selon les romanciers (French) Inventory and analysis of Paul Morand's non-novelistic writings about the novel