André Chamson | |
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 Andre Chamson in 1962 | |
| Born | (1900-06-06)6 June 1900 Nîmes,Gard, France |
| Died | 9 November 1983(1983-11-09) (aged 83) Paris, France |
| Spouse | |
| Children | Frédérique Hébrard |
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André Chamson (6 June 1900 – 9 November 1983) was a French archivist, novelist and essayist. He was nominated for theNobel Prize in Literature.[1]
He was the father of the novelistFrédérique Hébrard.
Chamson was born atNîmes,Gard. Having studied at theÉcole des chartes, as anarchiviste paléographe (graduation 1924), he was the founder-director of the journalVendredi and a museum curator before the Second World War. In July 1937 he attended the Second International Writers' Congress, the purpose of which was to discuss the attitude of intellectuals to the war in Spain, held inValencia,Barcelona andMadrid and attended by many writers includingAndré Malraux,Ernest Hemingway,Stephen Spender andPablo Neruda.[2] After the War he was on the editorial board of the magazineEurope at the time of its revival in 1946; he was a curator at theMusée du Petit Palais, and (from 1959 to 1971) director of the Archives de France.
He was President ofPEN International, the worldwide association of writers, from 1956 to 1959.
He was elected to theAcadémie Française on 17 May 1956 by 18 votes – includingJules Romains,André Maurois andGeorges Duhamel – to succeedErnest Seillière. In 1958, he was elected mainteneur of theAcadémie des Jeux floraux.
A Protestant, generous and sociable in both his life and his writing, he set most of his tales in theCévennes, his birthplace (Roux le bandit, 1925;Les Hommes de la route, 1927;Le Crime des justes, 1928;L'Auberge de l'Abîme, 1933;La Neige et la Fleur, 1951;La Tour de Constance, 1970). He spoke seven times at theAssemblées du Désert (1935, 1954, 1958, 1967, 1972, 1975 and 1979), an annual gathering of Protestants held on the first Sunday of September on the grounds of theMusée du Désert, at the village ofMas Soubeyran in theGard department.During the Second World War he was in charge of large sections of the Louvre; he succeeded in hiding some of the most famous art treasures, including The Venus of Milo near Valencay, in a chateau, in the provinces. Later in the War he joined the armed Resistance and became a major in the French units under General de Lattre de TassignyChamson died in Paris in 1983. He is buried with his wife near Pic de Barette inValleraugue, overlooking the Taleyrac valley.
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| Preceded by | International President ofPEN International 1956–1959 | Succeeded by |
