Paul Morand

Vocation

Notable

French diplomat and novelist whose early fiction captured the feverish atmosphere of the 1920s. Morand joined the diplomatic service in 1912, serving as attaché in London, Rome, Madrid, and Siam (Thailand). In his early fiction he borrowed the cinematic techniques of rapid scene changing and transported the reader back and forth from one capital to another. Later he wrote several collections of short. He also wrote biographies, most notably Ci-git Sophie Dorothée de Celle (1968; The Captive Princess: Sophia Dorothea of Celle). A world traveler, he wrote impressionistic accounts of cities in Asia, Africa, and North and South America. During World War II Morand continued to serve as a diplomat, but, because of his collaboration with the Vichy government, he was dismissed in 1945, and his candidacy for the French Academy was opposed in 1959. He was admitted, however, in 1968. The Grand Prix de Littérature Paul Morand was created in 1977. He died 24 July 1976. Link to Wikipedia biography