Biographer, novelist, essayist, children's writer, best known for his vivid, romantic style biographies of such authors as Shelley, Byron, Balzac, Proust and others. Maurois's The Quest for Proust is considered by many his finest biography.

"The minds of different generations are as impenetrable one by the other as are the monads of Leibniz." (from Ariel, 1923)

André Maurois was born Emile Salomon Wilhelm Herzog at Elbeuf, the son of Ernest Herzog, a textile manufacturer, and Alice (Lévy-Rueff) Herzog. His family had fled Alsace after the Franco-Prussian War (1870) and took refuge in Normandy, where they owned a woolen mill at Elbeuf. At school Maurois was a brilliant student. He was educated at the lycée of Elbeuf and Rouen, received barchelor's degree in letters and science and continued for a degree in philosophy at the University of Caen. From the age of eighteen to twenty-six he worked at his father's factory. When the World War I broke out, Maurois was first attached as an interpreter. Overestimating his knowledge of English, Maurois was then made a liaison officer to the British Army. Maurois's first wife, Jeanne-Marie Wanda de Szymkiewicz, was a Russian girl who had studied at Oxford. During the war she entered into affairs, and had a nervous breakdown in 1918. Later Maurois portrayed a similar character in LE CERCLE DE FAMILLE (1932).

As a novelist Maurois made his debut with The Silence of Colonel Bramble (1918), which was based on his experiences in the war. It gained a huge success and was followed by General Bramble and The Return of Doctor O'Grady. Maurois's second book, NI ANGE, NI BÊTE, was inspired by the story of Percy Shelley and his first wife Harriet Westbrook. His light-herarted biography of Shelley, ARIEL, established his fame as an interpreter of the Anglo-Saxon mind to the French public, and encouraged him to publish novelistic biographies. Although readers were delighted, its accurcy was attacked by critics. After this experience Maurois's biographies followed academic standards and were meticulously researched. He once stated: "I am never satisfied to do a hasty or improvised job when asked to write or speak."

Maurois wife died of septicemia in 1924. After the death his father, Maurois gave up the family business. He married Simone de Caillevet, the granddaughter of Anatole France's mistress Léontine Arman de Caillavet, and devoted himself to writing. In 1926 he gave a series of lectures at Trinity College, Cambridge, and devoleped further his ideas about the writing of lives. In the 1920s and 1930s appeared biographies of Bernard Quesnay (1926), Disraeli (1927), Voltaire (1932), King Edward (1933) and Chateaubriand (1938). His visit of 1927 in America, where he became a well-known figure during the following years, led to a life-long interest in the culture and history of the country. In 1929 he received an invitation from Priceton. Maurois's opinions ranging from Huey Long to the New Deal were widely quoted. "One cannot help calling to mind," Maurois said of Roosevelt's banking reform bill, "as one writers the history of these three crowded months, the Biblical account of the creation."

During World War II Maurois served as a captain of the French army and was first attached as a liaison officer to British General Headquarters. After Germany occupied France, Maurois moved with his wife to the Unites States to help with propaganda work against the Nazis. However, Britain's Consul General reported that Mme Simone Andre-Maurois was very anxious to get back to France. Maurois lectured at University of Kansas City and Mills Colege and wrote several biographies for young readers, among them lives of Frédéric Chopin (1942), General Eisenhower (1945), Franklin (1945), and Washington (1946). In 1943 Maurois left America and joined his writer-associate Antoine de Saint-Exupéry to serve with the Allied Forces in North Africa.

In 1946 Maurois returned to France and entered a new phase in his life. He wrote several works on French authors; Marcel Proust (1949), George Sand (1953), Alexandre Dumas (1953), Victor Hugo (1954) and Balzac (1965). Moreover, Maurois contributed articles to Opéra, Elle and other magazines. In 1951, when Joseph L. Mankiewicz's All About Eve was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Cannes Film Festival, he served for the first time as President of the jury. On a lecture tour in Italy he met Pope Pius XII in the Vatican, and discussed with him the literary style of Bossuet's Oraison funèbres.

"How came it that this prudent, economical man was also generous? That this chaste adolescent, this model father, grew to be, in his last years, an ageing faun? That this legitimist changed, first into a Bonapartist, only, later still, to be hailed as the grandfather of the Republic? That this pacifist could sing, better than anybody, of the glories of the flags of Wagram? That this bourgeois in the eyes of other bourgeois came to assume the stature of a rebel? These are the questions that every biographer of Victor Hugo must answer." (from Olympio: The Life of Victor Hugo, 1954)

Besides non-fiction Maurois wrote juvenile book, drama, short stories, and essays. His histories include The Miracle of England (1937), The Miracle of America (1944), and The Miracle of France (1948). Maurois was member of the French Academy from 1938. He died of a pulmonary congestion on October 9, 1967. As a biographer Maurois is considered unsurpassed. He used dialogue, indications of interior thought and other techniques that made his biographies easy to read as novels.

For further reading: Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century, vol. 3, ed. by Steven R. Serafin (1999); World Aurhors 1900-1950. ed. by Martin Seymour-Smith and Andrew C. Kimmens (1996); The Worlds of André Maurois by J. Kolbert (1985); André Maurois by L. Keating (1968); Maurois: The Writer and His Work by G.E. Lemaitre (1967); André Maurois by J. Suffel (1963); From My Journal by André Maurois (1947); I Remember, I Remember, by André Maurois (1942)

Selected works and translations:

• LES SILENCE DU COLONEL BRAMBLE, 1918 - The Silence of Colonel Bramble (tr. by Thurfrida Wake) / General Bramble (trans. by Jules Castier and Ronald Boswell)
• NI ANGE, NI BÊTE, 1919
• LES BOURGEOIS DE WITZHEIM, 1920
• LES DISCOURS DU DOCTEUR O'GRADY, 1922 - The Discourses of Doctor O'Grady (tr. by Jules Castier and Ronald Boswell)
• ARIEL, OU LA VIE DE SHELLEY, 1923 - Ariel: the Life of Shelley (trans. by Ella D’Arcy) - Ariel eli Shelleyn elämä (suom. E. Hagfors) .
• DIALOGUES SUR LE COMMANDEMENT, 1924 - Captains and Kings
• ARABESQUES, 1925
• LES ANGLAIS, 1926
• BERNARD QUESNAY, 1926 - Bernard Quesnay (trans.by Brian W. Downs)
• MEIPE, 1926 - Mape: the World of Illusion (trans. by Eric Sutton)
• CONSEILS À UNE JEUNE FRANÇAIS PARTANT POUR L'ANGLETERRE, 1927
• LA CONVERSATION, 1927 - Conversation (trans. by Yvonne Dufour)
• PETITE HISTOIRE DE L'ESPÈCE HUMAINE, 1927
• UN ESSAI SUR DICKENS, 1927 - Dickens (trans. by Hamish Miles)
• ÉTUDES ANGLAISES, 1927
• LE CHAPITRE SUIVANT, 1927 - The Next Chapter
• ROUEN, 1927
• LA VIE DE DISRAELI, 1927 - Disraeli: a Picture of the Victorian Age (trans. by Hamish Miles)
• DEUX FRAGMENTS D'UNE HISTOIRE UNIVERSELLE, 1928
• ASPECTS DE LA BIOGRAPHIE, 1928 - Aspects of Biography
• VOYAGE AU PAYS DES ARTICOLES, 1928 - A Voyage to the Island of the Articoles
• CONTACT, 1928
• CLIMATS, 1928 - Atmosphere of Love (trans. by Joseph Collins) / The Climates of Love (trans. by Violet Schiff and Esmé Cook) - Rakkauden murroskaudet (suom. Anna Silfverblad)
• LE PAYS DES TRENTE-SIX MILLE VOLONTÉS, 1928 - The Country of Thirty-six Thousand Wishes (trans. by Pauline Fairbanks)
• FRAGMENTS D'UN JOURNAL DE VACANES, 1928
• Selections from André Maurois, 1928
• LE CÔTÉ DE CHELSEA, 1929 - Chelsea Way (trans. by George D. Painter)
• DON JUAN, 1930 - Byron (trans. by Hamish Miles)
• RELATIVISME, 1930
• PATAPOUFS ET FILIFERS, 1930 - Patapoufs and Thinifers
• SUR LE VIF - L'EXPOSITION COLONIALE DE PARIS, 1931
• TOURGUENIEV, 1931
• LE PESEUR D'ÂMES, 1931 - The Weighter of Souls
• L'AMÉRIQUE INATTENDUE, 1931
• PROUST ET RUSKIN, 1932
• A Private Universe, 1932 (tr. by Hamish Hiles)
• LE CERCLE DE FAMILLE, 1932 - The Family Circle (trans. by Hamish Miles) - Perhepiiri (suom. Walter Streng-Renkonen)
• L'ANGLAISE ET D'AUTRES FEMES, 1932 - Ricochets (tr. by Hamish Miles)
• MES SONGES QUE VOICI, 1933
• INTRODUCTION À LA MÉTHODE DE PAUL VALÉRY, 1933
• CHANTIERS AMÉRICAINS, 1933
• EN AMERIQUE, 1933 (ed. by Robert M. Waugh)
• ÉDOUARD VII ET SON TEMPS, 1933 - The Edwardian Era / King Edward and His Times (trans. by Hamish Miles)
• SENTIMENTS ET COUTUMES, 1934
• L'INSTINCT DU BONHEUR, 1934 - A Time for Silence
• VOLTAIRE, 1934 - Voltaire (trans. by Hamish Miles)
• MAGICIENS ET LOGICIENS, 1935 - Poets and Prophets / Prophets and Poets (tr. by Hamish Miles) / Points of View; from Kipling to Graham Greene
• PREMIERS CONTES, 1935
• LA MACHINE À LIRE LES PENSÉES, 1937 - The Thought-Reading Machie
• HISTOIRE DE L'ANGLETERRE, 1937 - A History of England (trans. by Hamish Miles)
• CHATEAUBRIAND, 1938 - Chateaubriand – Poet, Statesman, Lover (trans. by Vera Fraser)
• ÉTATS-UNIS 39, 1939
• DISCOURS DE RÉCEPTION À L'ACADEMIE FRANÇAISE, 1939
• UN ART VIE VIVRE, 1939 - The Art of Living (trans. by James Whitall)
• JOURNAL D'UN VOYAGE EN AMÉRIQUE, 1939
• LES ORIGINES DE LA GUERRE DE 1939, 1939
• TRAGÉDIE EN FRANCE, 1940 - The Battle of France (trans. by F.R. Ludman) / Tragedy in France
• ÉTUDES LITTÉRAIRES, 1941-44 (2 vols.)
• MÉMOIRES, 1942 - I Remember, I Remember (trans. by Denver and Jane Lindley)
• FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN, 1942 - Frédéric Chopin (trans. by Ruth Green Harris)
• CINQ VISAGES DE L'AMOUR, 1942 - Seven Faces of Love
• HISTOIRE DES ÉTATS-UNIS, 1943 - History of the United States: From Wilson to Kennedy (trans. by Patrick O’Brian)
• TOUJOURS L'INATTENDU ARRIVE, 1943
• ESPOIRS E SOUVENIRS, 1943
• EISENHOWER, 1945 - Eisenhower, the Liberator
• FRANKLIN, 1945 - Franklin, the Life of an Optimist
• TERRE PROMISE, 1945 - Women without Love
• ÉTUDES AMÉRICAINES, 1945
• WASHINGTON, 1946 - Washington, the Life of an Patriot
• ÉTATS-UNIS 46, 1946 - From My Journal (trans. by Joan Charles [pseud.])
• JOURNAL D'UN TOUR EN SUISSE, 1946
• RETOUR EN FRANCE, 1947
• LES MONDES IMPOSSIBLES, 1947
• QUAND LA FRANCE S'ENRICHISSAIT, 1947
• ROUEN DÉVASTÉ, 1947
• HISTOIRE DE LA FRANCE, 1947 - The Miracle of France (tr. by Henry L. Binsse)
• JOURNAL D'UN TOUR EN AMÉRIQUE LATINE, 1948 - My Latin-American Diary
• Á LA RECHERCHE DE MARCEL PROUST, 1949 - Proust: The Portrait of a Genius / Proust: a Biography (trans. by Gerard Hopkins) - Marcel Proust (suom. Inkeri Tuomikoski)
• André Maurois Reader, 1949
• ALAIN, 1950
• OEUVRES, 1950-56 (16 vols.)
• LES NOUVEAUX DISCOURS DU DOCTEUR O'GRADY, 1950 - The Return of Doctor O'Grady (tr. by Gerard Hopkins)
• LE DÎNER SOUS LES MARRIONIERS, 1951
• COURS DE BONHEUR CONJUGAL, 1951 - The Art of Being Happily Married (trans. by Crystal Herbert)
• CE QUE JE CROIS, 1951
• DESTINS EXEMPLAIRES, 1952
• LÉLIA OU LA VIE DE GEORGE SAND, 1952 - Lélia, the Life of George Sand (trans. by Gerard Hopkins) - Sydän ei erehdy (suom. Reijo Wilenius)
• LA VIE DE CECIL RHODES, 1953 - Cecil Rhodes (trans. by Rohan Wadham)
• LETTRES À L'INCONNUE, 1953 - To an Unknown Lady (tr. by John Buchanan-Brown)
• OLYMPIO, 1954 - Olympio: The Life of Victor Hugo by Gerard Hopkins)
• PORTRAIT DE LA FRANCE ET DES FRANÇAIS, 1955
• AUX INNOCENTS LES MAINS PLEINES, 1955
• HOLLANDE, 1955
• Women of Paris, 1955
• PÉRIGORD, 1955
• DISCOURS PRONONCÉ À L'ACADÉMIE FRANÇAISE POUR LA RÉCEPTION DE JEAN COCTEAU, 1955
• ROBERT ET ELIZABETH BROWNING, 1955
• LOUIS XIV À VERSAILLES, 1955
• LA FRANCE CHANGE DE VISAGE, 1956
• LES ROSES DE SEPTEMBRE,1956 - September Roses (tr. by Gerard Hopkins)
• LECTURE MON DOUX PLAISIR, 1957 - The Art of Writing (trans. by Gerard Hopkins)
• DIALOGUE DES VIVANTS, 1957
• LES TROIS DUMAS, 1957 - The Titans
• LA VIE DE ALEXANDER FLEMING, 1959 - The Life of Sir Alexander Fleming (trans. by Gerard Hopkins) - Sir Alexander Fleming (suom. J.A. Hollo)
• PORTRAIT D'UN AMI QUI S'APPELAIT MOI, 1959
• POUR PIANO SEUL, 1960
• ADRIENNE, 1961 - Adrienne: the Life of the Marquise de La Fayette (trans. by Gerard Hopkins)
• HISTOIRE PARALLÈLE, 1962 (4 vols., with Luis Aragon) - From the New Freedom to the New Frontier (trans. by Patrick O’Brien)
• DE PROUST À CAMUS, 1963 - From Proust to Camus (trans. by Carl Morse and Renaud Bruce)
• CHOSES NUES, 1963
• HISTOIRE D'ALLEMAGNE, 1965 - An Illustrated History of Germany (trans. by Hamish Miles)
• DE GIDE À SARTRE, 1965
• LETTRE OUVERTE À UN JEUNE HOMME SUR LA CONDUITE DE LA VIE, 1965 - Open Letter to a Young Man (trans. by Frances Frenaye)
• PROMÉTHÉE, 1965 - Prometheus: The Life of Balzac (tr. by Norman Denny)
• AU COMMENCEMENT ÉTAIT L'ACTION, 1966
• SOIXANTE AND DE MA VIE LITTÉRAIRE, 1966
• D'ARAGON À MONTHERLANT, 1967
• Collected Stories of André Maurois, 1967 (trans. by Adrienne Foulke)
• LA CONQUÊTE DE L'ANGLETERRE PAR LES NORMANDS, 1967
• LES ILLUSIONS, 1968
• MÉMOIRES 1895-1967, 1970 - Memoirs (trans. by Denver Lindley)