André Malraux

André Malraux (1901-1976), French novelist, archaeologist, art theorist, political activist, and public official, whose writings were major contributions to 20th-century culture.

Malraux was born on November 3, 1901, into a prosperous Parisian family and educated at the School of Oriental Languages, Paris. In 1923 he went to Indochina to do archaeological research. He became active in the struggle of Annamese revolutionaries to win self-rule from France, and he remained in the Orient until 1927. Malraux used his Asian experiences as background for three novels: Les Conquérants (1928; The Conquerors, 1929), La Voie Royale (1930; The Royal Way, 1935), and La Condition humaine (1933; Man's Fate, 1934). The last-named work won the Prix Goncourt and international fame. His next novel, Le Temps du mépris (1935; Days of Wrath, 1936), was inspired by a visit to Germany, then under the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler. His experiences as a pilot with a Loyalist air squadron during the Spanish civil war were the basis for the novel L'Espoir (1938; Man's Hope, 1938). In World War II Malraux volunteered as a private, was captured by the Germans, escaped, and served as a colonel in the French Resistance but was recaptured. In 1945-1946 he joined the provisional government of Charles de Gaulle and from 1959 until 1969 Malraux was minister for cultural affairs. He retired to a suburb of Paris, where he continued to write until his death on November 23, 1976.

Malraux wrote extensively about aesthetics. His Psychologie de l'art (1947-1949), was published in condensed form as Les Voix du Silence (1951; The Voices of Silence, 1953). La Métamorphose des Dieux (trans. 1960) and Le Triangle noir (1970) are also about art.

Malraux was fully involved in the events of his time; his novels live on two levels, those of frantic action and anguished thought. The first volume of his autobiography, Antimémoires, was published in 1967 (trans. 1968). His last work was Felled Oaks: Conversations with de Gaulle (1972; trans. 1972).