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Georges Simenon, author of the Maigret stories, was the best-selling writer in the world. He wrote 193 novels and his work was praised by Celine, T.S. Eliot, Somerset Maugham, Fellini and Henry Miller. Andre Gide described him as ‘the greatest novelist we have had this century’.
But Simenon was a man haunted by sexual jealousy and by phantoms which he could only exorcise in his writing. In his youth he was tempted by a life of crime. After an impoverished childhood in Liege he left school at the age of fifteen during the German occupation and started dealing in the black market, distilling poisonous, homemade ‘chartreuse’and consorting with prostitutes. Two of his friends were convicted of murder and a third died in mysterious circumstances. Chance saved Simenon from a similar fate. He moved to Paris where, under the patronage of Colette, he was launched on his career as a popular writer in the Montparnasse of the 1920’s. Then he started work on the long sequence of ‘psychological’ or ‘dark’ novels which were to make his literary reputation.
Simenon was a man of great generosity and charm and a devoted father to his four children, though his own life was overshadowed by his mother’s treatment of him as a child. He was also an occasional alcoholic and a lifelong philanderer who, during two marriages, seduced women on a heroic scale, among them Josephine Baker. Fearing he might be suspected of collaboration during the Second World War he emigrated to the United States where he began a tumultuous relationship with his second wife. For a time he lived in a menage-a-quatre in Arizona. On his return to Europe his life took a tragic turn, the end of his marriage being followed by the suicide of his only daughter. He spent his last years in seclusion in Lausanne writing outrageously unreliable memoirs.
Patrick Marnham, in the first portrait since Simenon’s death, sets out to explain the connection between the writer’s childhood, his lifelong fascination with crime and the tormented fiction he wrote. He has followed the story from Liege and Paris to Switzerland, talking to those who shared Simenon’s life and drawing on his letters, papers and writing to produce this shrewd, witty and thoroughly captivating biography.
THE MAN WHO WASN’T MAIGRET
ROAD TO KATMANDU
FANTASTIC INVASION: DISPATCHES FROM AFRICA LOURDES, A MODERN PILGRIMAGE THE PRIVATE EYE STORY
SO FAR FROM GOD: A JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AMERICA TRAIL OF HAVOC: IN THE STEPS OF LORD LUCAN
NOMADS OF THE SAHEL (Minority Rights Group) NIGHT THOUGHTS (from The Spectator ) ed.
A PORTRAIT OF GEORGES SIMENON
Patrick Marnham
BLOOMSBURY
First published 1992
Copyright © 1992 by Patrick Marnham The moral right of the author has been asserted.
Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd, 2 Soho Square, London W1V 5DE
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 0 7475 08844
10 98765432 1
Typeset by Florencetype Ltd, Kewstoke, Avon Printed in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives pic
Illustrations vii
Author’s Note ix
Chronology xi
Prelude - Lausanne 1989: Death of a man with no profession 1
PART I The Scene of the Crime 7
1 Liege 1903: Preliminaries to the death of
a man with no profession 9
2 The death of a childhood 38
3 The boy columnist 55
4 The death of a journalist 74
5 The death of Kleine 93
PART II The Idiot Genius 105
6 ‘Manger etfaire Vamour 107
7 A certain idea of France 128
8 Death of a playboy 148
9 The commissioner for refugees 182
10 Muddle, fear, treachery and deceit 202
PART III A Sickness and a Curse 227
11 The trap shuts 229
12 Shadow Rock Farm 252
13 The act of hate 272
14 The man in the glass cage 295
Appendix 323
Bibliography 325
Notes on sources 325
Selected works of Georges Simenon 326
The Maigret series 326
The novels 329
Autobiographical writings 333
Additional fiction and non-fiction sources 334
Selected secondary sources 334
Index 337
Following page 76
1. Grandfather Simenon
2. The Simenons of Outremeuse
3. Wilhelm Briill
4. Maria Brull
5. Desire and Henriette with Georges and Christian
6. Georges Simenon with his class
7. Liege street scene
8. Georges Simenon and two other altar boys
9. Lola Resnick
10. Frida Stavitskai'a
11. 53 rue de la Loi
12. Simenon aged 15
13. Joseph Demarteau III
14. Members of ‘La Caque’
15. The back streets of Outremeuse
16. Simenon on arriving in Paris
17. ‘Georges Sim’, pulp novelist
18. Simenon and Josephine Baker
19. Boule as a cabin boy
20. Simenon painted by Tigy
21. Aboard the Ostrogoth
22. La Richardiere
23. Christian Simenon with his son
24. Regine Simenon on a beach near La Rochelle
25. Start of the world tour
26. ‘Mamata’
Following page 252
27. The christening party
28. 1939, Simenon and Marc
29. 1941, Simenon at his desk
30. Simenon, Tigy, Marc and Boule
31. Denyse Ouimet
32. Shadow Rock Farm
33. 1952, Simenon and Fernandel
34. With some of his books
35. Simenon in 1955
36. Simenon and Brigitte Bardot in 1958
37. Simenon with Denise, Johnny, Marie-Jo and Pierre in 1961
38. Marie-Jo and her father
39. Simenon with his mother and his wife
40. Outside Epalinges
41. With his mother
42. Marie-Jo Simenon
43. Simenon and Teresa
44. Under the cedar tree
Photo acknowledgements
My thanks are due to the owners of the photographs produced. The Centre d’Etudes Georges Simenon at the Universite de Liege supplied all the illustrations except Nos. 6, 19, 22, 23, 24, 26 and 28 (Marc Simenon), No. 32 (Denyse Simenon), No. 11 (the author), No. 13 (Photo Planchar, Liege), No. 35 (Look Magazine, New York), No. 36 (Le Soir Illustre, Brussels), and No. 43 ( Elle , Paris).
Novelists sometimes try to outwit biographers by arranging for their papers to be destroyed. Georges Simenon used a more subtle method. He endowed a foundation at the University of Liege, his native city, with an extensive collection of professional papers. At the same time he published an autobiography of 1048 pages and followed this with a 21volume series of memoirs. He had previously published two autobiographical novels, a diary, and two earlier volumes of memoirs. This adds up to twenty-seven volumes, of which only four have been translated into English. In this collection of writings about the events of his life he contradicted himself merrily, and frequently warned readers about the unreliability of the earlier accounts. I believe the key to his life lies in the pattern formed by these contradictions. I have also been influenced by his comment that ‘a man absorbs material until the age of about 18. What he has not taken in by then, he never will.’
One of the themes of the book is the tracing of links between the events of Simenon’s real life and those in his fiction. If this account encourages readers to return to the work of the writer whom Andre Gide described as ‘the greatest French novelist of our times’, so much the better. Simenon’s genius brought him high praise from his peers, and enormous sales, but despite this he remained a modest man. At the height of his fame he once said, ‘The artist is above all else a sick person, in any case an unstable one - if the doctors are to be believed . . . Why see in that some form of superiority? I would do better to ask people’s forgiveness.’
I acknowledge the help of Mme Christine Swings, the administrator of the Centre d’Etudes Georges Simenon at the University of Liege. Her
practical advice and encouragement have been an inspiration. I also acknowledge with gratitude the help and hospitality of the members of Georges Simenon’s family circle, Mme Denyse Simenon, Marc Simenon and his wife Mylene Demongeot, John Simenon, Mme Henriette Liberge and Mme Teresa Sburelin. Bernard de Fallois, formerly president of the Presses de la Cite, who was for many years Simenon’s closest friend, gave me invaluable guidance and information. Mme Joyce Pache-Aitken, administrator of the Simenon estate in Lausanne, his literary executrix and for over thirty years his secretary, answered many questions and supplied me with documents unobtainable elsewhere.
I also acknowledge the help of (among many others) Professor Paul Delbouille, President of the Centre d’Etudes Georges Simenon, JeanChristophe Camus, Willy Rutten, Pierre Zink and Paul Giesberg in Liege; Bernard Alavoine in Amiens; Jean-Pierre Sanguy, Directeur de la Police Judiciaire, Patrick Riou, Chef de la Brigade Criminelle, Mme Fran^oise Verdier of the Prefecture de Police, Commissaire Thierry Boulouque of 36 Quai des Orfevres, the Librarian of the BILIPO, Pierre Assouline, Claude Gauteur and Robin Smythe in Paris; the Curator of the Museum at the Ecole Nationale Superieure de la Police in Saint-Cyr au Mont d’Or; Paul Mercier in Besangon; Paul Martinon in Nice; Julian Symons, Eric Norris and the late Caroline Hobhouse in London.
I would like to thank the Estate of Georges Simenon for permission to quote from the following published works in copyright: Je me souviens, Un homme comme un autre, Vent du nord, vent du sud, De la cave au grenier, Je suis reste un enfant de choeur. On dit quej’ai 15 ans, Quand vient lefroid, La femme endormie, Jour et nuit and Destinies. I am also grateful to the Estate of Georges Simenon and to Hamish Hamilton Ltd for permission to quote from The Night Club, Monsieur Monde Vanishes, The Fate of the Malous, The Son, Pedigree, Letter to my Mother and Intimate Memoirs, all of which are published works in copyright which have been translated into English. I have used my own translations throughout this book except in the case of The Fate of the Malous where I have used the translation by Denis George published by Hamish Hamilton Ltd.
Finally my wife, Chantal, helped me enormously, in the first place by her criticism and encouragement and subsequently by the many hours of research spent in the French Bibliotheque Nationale and the Bibliotheque des Litteratures Policieres in the rue Mouffetard, Paris 6eme, as well as by tracking down many editions of out of print books.
I assume responsibility for any errors that remain.
Paris, February 1992
1903
12 February
1904
April
1906
21 September
1908
September
1911
February
1914
August
October
1915 July
September
1918
July
November
Birth of Georges Simenon at 26 rue Leopold, Liege
Family settle on island of Outremeuse in centre of city, 1 rue Pasteur
Birth of younger brother, Christian; Georges starts infant school in parish of St Nicolas
Georges moves up to Christian Brothers’ primary school, Institut St Andre
Family move to 53 rue de la Loi
Outbreak of war; German army occupies Liege Georges enters the Jesuit College of St Louis
Summer holiday in Embourg; Georges meets ‘Renee’ Renounces vocation to priesthood. Moves to the College of St Servais
Father, Desire Simenon, suffers heart attack; Georges leaves school
German army surrenders; liberation of Liege xi
1919 January June | Georges joins Gazette de Liege as a reporter Joins group of artists and anarchists, ‘La Caque’ |
1920 31 December | Meets art student, Regine Renchon |
1921 February Spring 28 November | Publication of first novel, Au Pont des Arches Becomes engaged to Regine, now known as ‘Tigy’ Death of Desire Simenon |
1922 March 10 December | Suicide of his friend, Kleine Takes night train to Paris |
1923 24 March September | Returns to Liege for two days to marry Tigy Colette finally accepts one of his short stories for Le Matin. He uses the name ‘Georges Sim’ |
1924 March | Leaves employ of Marquis de Tracy to live by his |
Summer | writing Finishes first novel written in Paris, Le roman d’une dactylo |
1925 Summer | Holiday near port of Etretat, Normandy; Henriette Liberge, the 18-year-old daughter of a local fisherman, becomes Tigy’s maid; Sim rechristens her ‘Boule’ |
1926 April | Tigy sells her first pictures; they spend summer on Mediterranean island of Porquerolles |
1927 January Summer | Sim signs contract with entrepreneur Eugene Merle to write a novel while locked inside a glass cage Retreats to lie d’Aix to break off attachment to Josephine Baker |
xii |
Summer
1928 March | Sets off with Tigy and Boule on tour of France by river and canal |
October | Contributes stories to new magazine, Detective |
1929 March | Sets off on one-year trip around waterways of north |
September | ern Europe At Delfzijl, Holland, he concentrates on development of new fictional character, Commissaire Maigret |
1930 Spring April | Voyage to Lapland with Tigy Returns to Paris. Signs contract with Fayard for a series of Maigret books, the first to be published under Simenon’s own name |
1931 February | Throws ‘bal anthropometrique ’ to launch the first two ‘Maigrets’ |
1932 April | Becomes tenant of small country estate, La Richardiere, near La Rochelle |
June | Sets off on tour of tropical Africa |
1933 January | Writes first ‘dark’ or ‘psychological’ novel, La maison du canal |
June | Writes ninth and ‘last’ ‘Maigret’. Sets off on tour of Eastern Europe. Interviews Trotsky |
October | Signs contract with Gallimard to write six novels a year |
1934 January April | Investigates the ‘Stavisky’ scandal Forced to leave La Richardiere; spends summer cruis |
September | ing the Mediterranean Moves to hunting lodge in forest of Orleans, La Cour-Dieu xiii |
1935 January October August | Sets off on world tour to Tahiti and back Takes luxurious apartment in Neuilly Retires to Porquerolles to write major work, Le testament Donadieu |
1937 December | Announces he will win Nobel prize ‘in ten years’ |
1938 Tune July August | Buys house at Nieul-sur-Mer, near La Rochelle Tigy becomes pregnant Munich crisis. Simenon called up in general mobilisation of Belgian army |
1939 19 April 3 September | Birth of son, Marc Simenon France and Great Britain declare war. Belgium remains neutral |
1940 10 May 11 May | Germany invades Holland and Belgium On his way to join his unit, Simenon is turned back at Paris and appointed commissioner for Belgian refugees at La Rochelle |
22 June | French army surrenders; Simenon, Tigy, Marc and Boule caught in German occupied zone |
August | Moves house away from the coast to Forest of Vouvant |
September | Moves house again to Fontenay-le-Comte; misdiagnosed as case of incurable heart disease, believes he |
9 December | has only a short time to live Starts to write a family memoir for Marc called Je me souviens |
1941 June | Encouraged by Andre Gide to start work on autobiographical novel, Pedigree |
1942 June | Accused by Vichy authorities of being Jewish and threatened with deportation to concentration camp |
July | Moves house again to remote hamlet of St Mesmin-le-Vieux |
November | Attempts to cross illegally into Vichy Zone; thwarted by German occupation of whole of France |
1943 January | Finishes Pedigree ; auctions manuscripts for war charities |
1944 Summer | After fifteen years Tigy discovers liaison between her husband and Boule |
J^y 1945 May August | Simenon flees Resistance purge Returns to Paris Simenon, Tigy and Marc leave France, without Boule |
September November | Family settles at St Luc Masson, Canada Simenon hires French-Canadian Denyse (rechristened Denise) Ouimet as resident secretary. She becomes his mistress |
1946 January September November | Writes Trois chambres a Manhattan Sets off for tour of United States with Denise Settles in Bradenton Beach, Florida. Writes Lettre a mon juge |
1947 January June | To Havana, Cuba, with Denise Settles in Snob Hollow, Tucson, Arizona, with Denise, Tigy and Marc |
1948 March June | Writes a masterpiece, La neige etait sale Moves to Stud Bam, Tumacacori, Arizona; the arrival of Boule turns his menage a trois into a menage a quatre |
1949 January | Denise announces that she is pregnant and Simenon tells Tigy that they must divorce; Tigy, Boule and Marc move to California |
29 September October
1950
June
September
1951
1952
March
1953
23 February
1954
1955
March
April
June
October
1957
July
1959
26 May
1960
May
1961
December
Birth of John Simenon
Simenon, Denise and John move to Carmel, California, to be near Marc
At Reno, Nevada, Simenon divorces Tigy and marries Denise on successive days and in the same courthouse
Simenon and Denise settle at Shadow Rock Farm, Lakeville, Connecticut
World sales reach 3 million a year
Huge crowds welcome Simenon’s train at the Gare St Lazare on his triumphant visit to Paris; elected member of Belgian Academie Royale
Birth of the writer’s only daughter, Marie-Jo Simenon
Simenon starts to take out US citizenship
Acting on impulse Simenon packs up and leaves for Europe
Settles at La Gatouniere, Cannes Denise suffers miscarriage
Family move to luxurious villa, Golden Gates, Cannes
Takes up permanent residence in Swiss canton of Vaud; takes lease of Chateau d’Echandens, a castle outside Lausanne
Birth of son, Pierre Simenon
President of jury at Cannes Film Festival
Denise hires a new maid, Teresa Sburelin, a native of Venice; shortly afterwards she becomes Simenon’s mistress
1962 March June | Simenon becomes a grandfather Denise agrees to enter a psychiatric clinic at Nyon for treatment |
October | Writes Les anneaux de Bicetre |
1963 December | Simenon and Denise move to vast new house built to their design at Epalinges on opposite side of Lausanne |
1964 April | Denise leaves Epalinges for ever; returns to psychiatric clinic |
November | Boule leaves Epalinges |
1966 May | Marie-Jo, aged 13, undergoes first psychiatric treatment |
September | Simenon returns to Delfzijl for major celebrations of the creation of Commissaire Maigret attended by his |
December | publishers from all over the world Falls and breaks several ribs; Teresa becomes his nurse and official companion |
1967 February | Publication of Le chat, a pitiless description of his mother’s second marriage |
1970 July October | Marie-Jo suffers nervous breakdown Simenon writes La disparition d’Odile, about a young girl who suffers nervous breakdown and attempts suicide |
8 December | Death of Henriette Simenon |
1971 October | Simenon finishes what is to be his last roman dur, Les innocents |
1972 February September October | Finishes the last ‘Maigret’, Maigret et M. Charles Puts Epalinges on the market Moves with Teresa to eighth-floor apartment in avenue de Cour, Lausanne |
xvii |
1973
7 February
1974
February
April
1977
February
November
1978
April
20 May
1980
November
1981
September
October
November
1985
18 June
1989
4 September
Announces retirement as a writer; six days later buys tape-recorder and starts to dictate twenty-one volumes of memoirs
Moves with Teresa and Pierre, now aged 14, to small house in the avenue des Figuiers Dictates Lettre a ma mere, a description of his relationship with his mother
During interview with Fellini, intended to publicise latter’s new film Casanova, makes world headlines by announcing that he has enjoyed sexual relations with 10,000 women
The Fonds Simenon opens at Liege University
Denise (now ‘Denyse’) Simenon publishes Un oiseau pour le chat, an uninhibited account of her marriage Marie-Jo commits suicide in her Paris apartment
Finishes Memoires intimes, an autobiography addressed to Marie-Jo
Denyse publishes Le phallus d’or, a roman a clef based on her marriage to Simenon
Simenon publishes Memoires intimes, in which he blames Denyse for the suicide of their daughter Denyse wins a court order suppressing several passages in Memoires intimes
Death of Tigy, aged 84, in her son Marc’s house in Porquerolles
Death of Georges Simenon, aged 86, at his house in Lausanne; his children hear the news of his death on the radio, after the cremation