Educated at the Lycee of Elbeuf and Rouen, Maurois received a BA degree and then went to the University of Caen where he received a degree in philosophy. He worked at his father's factory until the outbreak of World War I. Maurois volunteered and became an interpreter and subsequently a liaison officer to the British Army. In 1918, he published a humourous account of this time as The Silence of Colonel Bramble, which became very popular in France as well as in Britain. He visited England and lectured there on numerous occasions. In 1921, he published General Bramble, a sequel that was equally popular. In 1938, Maurois was elected to the Academie Francais. During World War II served as a captain in the French Army, but left France after the German occupation. He moved to America and carried out propaganda against the Nazis until 1943, when he left for North Africa to serve with the Allied Forces. He returned to France in 1946 and published a number of biographies over the ensuing years. In 1947, he legally changed his name to his pseudonym. Maurois was a prolific writer and produced dramas, short stories, essays and juvenile works in addition to his many novels and biographies. These works include The Discourses of Doctor O'Grady (1922), Ariel: The Life of Shelley (1923), Captains and Kings (1924), Bernard Quesnay (1926), Dickens (1927), Byron (1930), The Family Circle (1932), The Art of Living (1939), Frederic Chopin (1942), Eisenhower (1945), The Return of Doctor O'Grady (1950), Cecil Rhodes (1953), The Titans (1957), From the New Freedom to the New Frontier (1962) and Prometheus: The Life of Balzac (1965). |
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