Paul Guimard
Paul Guimard | |
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Paul Guimard signing at the International Festival of Geography | |
Born | (1921-03-03)3 March 1921 Saint-Mars-la-Jaille, Loire-Atlantique, France |
Died | 2 May 2004(2004-05-02) (aged 83) Hyères, Var, France |
Occupation | Writer |
Spouse | Benoîte Groult |
Children | 1 |
Paul Guimard (3 March 1921 – 2 May 2004)[1] was a French writer known for combining his passion for writing with his love of the sea. His most famous work was Les Choses de la Vie,[2] which was adapted for film, with a complete change of its ending, by Claude Sautet, with Romy Schneider and Michel Piccoli.
Biography
Guimard was born at Saint-Mars-la-Jaille (Loire-Atlantique). He married Benoîte Groult. Following a poor performance at the private Saint-Stanislas school of Nantes, he began a career as a journalist. During World War II he reported for the provincial paper L'Echo de la Loire and later had a job as a news editor for another regional daily, L'Ouest-Eclair. He covered French broadcasting in the op-ed pages of Tribune de Paris for four years.
In 1945 he wrote a comedy, Seventh Sky, which played briefly. His literary career began in 1956 with the successful, award-winning novel False Friends. His next award winner, Rue du Havre, followed a year later.
In 1960 Guimard wrote the comedy A Best Man with his friend Antoine Blondin in Paris. One year later, he published The Irony of Fate which, like Rue du Havre, explores the role of chance in human relationships. The book was the basis for a film by Edouard Molinaro.
Later years
Guimard was in charge of a mission for the French President François Mitterrand from Mitterrand's election in 1981 until August 1982. "My only regret is not to have obtained at the time of my passage to the Elysium the creation of an academy of the Sea", Guimard said, affirming that this experiment "was not directed, but only one long accident".
Guimard was a member of the audio-visual communication authority from 1982 to 1986. He then returned to literature after a decade. He published a short story on Giraudoux, Giraudoux? Hello!... (1988) and novels such as A Combination of Circumstances (1990), The Stone Age (1992), and First Comers (1997).
In 1993 he received a lifetime achievement award from the Foundation of Prince Pierre of Monaco.
Paul Guimard died in Hyères (Var). He was married to French feminist and optimistic writer Benoîte Groult, who shared his love of navigation. The style of both writers slightly converged in that respect; Groult's latest works (Les Vaisseaux du coeur) are more nostalgic, and Guimard's "brother" novel, also about human destiny and sea (Le Mauvais temps), is more sensible to the role of human will as opposed to fate.
Works
Most of Guimard's novels deal about the role of randomness in life (mainly L'Ironie du sort), time, man's understanding of hidden and ironic structures in which he is trapped. His latest work (Le Mauvais temps) describes a major transformation of a character who finally understands in dramatic circumstances the price of life and the importance of personal choice, changing his desperate life for the best.
- Les Premiers venus (First Comers)
- Les Choses de la vie (Life As It Is), published in English as Intersection (1994)
- Les Faux-frères (Traitors)
- Rue du Havre (Le Havre Street) – adapted as a telefilm for French TV; published in the U.S. as The House of Happiness
- L'Ironie du sort (Fate's Ironies) – adapted as a film
- L'Age de pierre (The Stone Age)
- Giraudoux ? Tiens ! (Giraudoux? Hello!)
- Le Mauvais temps (Bad Weather)
References
External links
- AFP obituary (in French)
- v
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- 1930 André Malraux
- 1931 Pierre Bost
- 1932 Simonne Ratel
- 1933 Robert Bourget-Pailleron
- 1934 Marc Bernard
- 1935 Jacques Debû-Bridel [fr]
- 1936 René Laporte [fr]
- 1937 Romain Roussel
- 1938 Paul Nizan
- 1939 Roger de Lafforest
- 1940
- 1941
- 1942
- 1943
- 1944
- 1945 Roger Vailland
- 1946 Jacques Nels [fr]
- 1947 Pierre Daninos
- 1948 Henry Castillou [fr]
- 1949 Gilbert Sigaux [fr]
- 1950 Georges Auclair [fr]
- 1951 Jacques Perret
- 1952 Jean Dutourd
- 1953 Louis Chauvet
- 1954 Maurice Boissais
- 1955 Félicien Marceau
- 1956 Armand Lanoux
- 1957 Paul Guimard
- 1958 Bertrand Poirot-Delpech
- 1959 Antoine Blondin
- 1960 Jean Portelle [fr]
- 1960 Henry Muller
- 1961 Jean Ferniot
- 1962 Henri-François Rey
- 1963 Renée Massip
- 1964 René Fallet
- 1965 Alain Bosquet
- 1966 Kléber Haedens
- 1967 Yvonne Baby
- 1968 Christine de Rivoyre
- 1969 Pierre Schoendoerffer
- 1970 Michel Déon
- 1971 Pierre Rouanet [fr]
- 1972 Georges Walter [fr]
- 1973 Lucien Bodard
- 1974 René Mauriès
- 1975 Voldemar Lestienne
- 1976 Raphaële Billetdoux
- 1977 Jean-Marie Rouart
- 1978 Jean-Didier Wolfromm
- 1979 François Cavanna
- 1980 Christine Arnothy
- 1981 Louis Nucéra
- 1982 Éric Ollivier
- 1983 Jacques Duquesne [fr]
- 1984 Michèle Perrein
- 1985 Serge Lentz
- 1986 Philippe Labro
- 1987 Raoul Mille [fr]
- 1988 Bernard-Henri Lévy
- 1989 Alain Gerber [fr]
- 1990 Bayon [fr]
- 1991 Sébastien Japrisot
- 1992 Dominique Bona
- 1993 Jean-Pierre Dufreigne
- 1994 Marc Trillard
- 1995 Franz-Olivier Giesbert
- 1996 Eduardo Manet
- 1997 Éric Neuhoff
- 1998 Gilles Martin-Chauffier [fr]
- 1999 Jean-Christophe Rufin
- 2000 Patrick Poivre d'Arvor
- 2001 Stéphane Denis
- 2002 Gonzague Saint Bris
- 2003 Frédéric Beigbeder
- 2004 Florian Zeller
- 2005 Michel Houellebecq
- 2006 Michel Schneider
- 2007 Christophe Ono-dit-Biot [fr]
- 2008 Serge Bramly
- 2009 Yannick Haenel
- 2010 Jean-Michel Olivier [fr]
- 2011 Morgan Sportès
- 2012 Philippe Djian
- 2013 Nelly Alard
- 2014 Mathias Menegoz
- 2015 Laurent Binet
- 2016 Serge Joncour
- 2017 Jean-René Van der Plaetsen
- 2018 Thomas B. Reverdy
- 2019 Karine Tuil
- 2020 Irène Frain
- 2021 Mathieu Palain [fr]
- 2022 Philibert Humm [fr]