Francois Mauriac (1885-1970)
French author & laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature
The Bordeaux-born author, François Mauriac, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1952 "for the deep spiritual insight and the artistic intensity with which he has in his novels penetrated the drama of human life".
He studied literature at the university of Bordeaux before moving to Paris to study at the Ecole des Chartes. Known for having several rather public and bitter disputes with fellow authors over matters of religion and politics, he was, amongst other things, a journalist at Le Figaro and L'express newspapers.
His masterpieces included Le Désert de l'Amour (The Desert of Love, 1925), Thérèse Desqueyroux (1927), and its sequel La Fin de la Nuit (The End of the Night, 1935), La Pharisienne (A Woman of the Pharisees, 1941) and Le Noeud de vipères (The Knot of Vipers, 1932).
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.
