Georges Simenon

Georges Simenon (1903-1989), Belgian-French novelist, born in Liege. Simenon, a prolific author, wrote over 400 novels of which the first 200 or so were cheap love and adventure stories written under a wide variety of pseudonyms of which the best known is Georges Sim. The other 200 novels were written under his patronym Georges Simenon. About half of these form a series of detective novels about the French police officer, Inspector Maigret, who solves crimes by his remarkable psychological intuition and understanding of the perpetrator's motives. These novels achieved outstanding success in Europe and the United States, and editions have appeared in many languages. Simenon's other novels, most of which also deal with crime, include The Man Who Watched the Trains Go By (1946) and Confessional (1968). His autobiography, Intimate Memoirs (1981; trans. 1984), details his own neurotic preoccupations and includes the story of his beloved daughter's suicide.