(1901-1976) novelist,nonfiction writer
Andre Georges Malraux was born in Paris, France, on November 3, into a wealthy family. His parents separated when he was a child and he was brought up by his mother. His father was a stockbroker who committed suicide in 1930. As a youth, Malraux studied a wide variety of subjects, such as archaeology, art history, and anthropology. However, what interested him the most was oriental languages, histories, and cultures, which he studied at the Ecole des Langues Orientales.
At the age of 21, Malraux married Clara Gold-smidt, also a writer, and together they traveled to Cambodia and spent time in Indochina, attempting to rediscover the Khmer statuary. He was arrested, however, for taking bas-reliefs from a temple. His three-year sentence was rescinded, and he returned briefly to France. It was during this period that he became highly critical of French colonial authorities governing Indochina. As a result, Malraux began the first of many political endeavors that, alongside and often directly linked to his literary achievements, eventually distinguished his remarkable life. He helped to first organize the Young Annam League, an anticolonial organization in Saigon in 1925. He also founded and edited the politically active and outspoken anti-colonial Saigon newspaper Indochina in Chains. on returning to France, Malraux published his first novel, The Temptation of the West (1926). The work, set in the early stages of the Chinese revolution and revolving around letters exchanged between a young European and an Asian intellectual, focuses on the parallels between Eastern and Western culture. He followed this work with two novels, The Conquerors (1928), which dealt with a revolutionary strike in Canton, and The Royal Way (1930), a successful adventure story set in the jungles of Indochina.
Malraux supported himself by working as an art editor in Paris for Gallimard Publishers. He was able to take several archaeological expeditions to Afghanistan and Iran, which led to his discovery of the lost city that may have been home to the Queen of Sheba. He continued to write, with death and revolution two of his major themes. Man’s Fate (1933), one of his best-known novels, earned for him the prestigious Goncourt Prize, as well as much deserved recognition as an author. The novel depicts a communist uprising in Shanghai and focuses on the dignity of human solidarity in both life and death.
In the 1930s, Malraux became known politically for his support of antifascist and leftist organizations. He fought for the Republicans during the Spanish civil war and wrote about these experiences in his novel L’Espoir (Days of Hope, 1937). The book, published prior to the end of the war, stops with the March 1937 battle at Guadalajara. In 1938, L’Espoir was revised as a screenplay under the title Sierrade Teruel; however, the film was not released in France until after the conclusion of World War II.
The 1940s marked a shift in Malraux’s life. He divorced his wife and broke away from communism, as he did not agree with the Nazi-Soviet pact. He began to concentrate on writing nonfic-tion and was openly opposed to Stalin’s ideas. He served with a French tank unit during World War II and, though twice captured by the Gestapo, managed to escape both times.
After the war, Malraux became a vocal supporter of Charles de Gaulle. He wrote a number of books on art and aesthetics and married a concert pianist. When De Gaulle came into power, Malraux was appointed minister of cultural affairs, and his first act in office was to order the cleaning of the Louvre. This act was highly controversial in that many people saw it not as an improvement but as an act of vandalism. Malraux eventually retired from the forefront of politics to write his memoirs, including the autobiographical The Fallen Oaks (1971). He wrote regularly until his death on November 23.
Another Work by Andre Malraux
The Walnut Trees of Altenburg. Translated by A. W. Fielding. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.
A Work about Andre Malraux
Cate, Curtis. Andre Malraux: A Biography. New York: Fromm International, 1998.
