Notes on sources
In addition to the works listed in the bibliography my principal written sources have been the papers collected at the Centre d’Etudes Georges Simenon at the University of Liege. These include the collection of letters written between 1932 and 1980 to thirty-eight correspondents, among them Gide, Cocteau, Vlaminck, Colette, Mauriac, Pagnol, Jean Renoir, Sacha Guitry, Fellini, T.S. Eliot, Thornton Wilder, Somerset Maugham and Henry Miller. The Centre d’Etudes also holds an extensive collection of Simenon’s manuscripts and typescripts and other material used in his writing such as his ‘enveloppes jaunes’, working calendars, files of proper names, and the other research material - maps, railway timetables and medical reports - he gathered before starting work on a novel. The Centre d’Etudes also holds the original editions or typescripts of works such as Pedigree and Memoires intimes which were subsequently abridged by order of the Belgian or French courts. It also holds a collection of thousands of newspaper articles and reviews of Simenon’s work from all over the world and an extensive picture archive.
I have been able to read a collection of Simenon’s letters to his mother, Henriette Brull, written between 1958 and her death in 1970, and not previously available for study. Marc Simenon allowed me to consult a collection of his mother’s letters, diaries and other records and personal papers which after the death of Regine Renchon were stored in a trunk in the attic. Much of this material related to the war years and the subsequent period spent in the United States. Marc Simenon also gave me extracts from his mother and father’s previously unpublished
correspondence which covers the period between their marriage and Georges Simenon’s arrival in Paris in 1922.
This is the first English-language biography of Simenon which has drawn on the work of the late Mathieu Rutten, Simenon: ses origines, sa vie, son oeuvre, which was originally published in Flemish in 1977 and subsequently translated into French. This is a remarkable book, despite its eccentric organisation, the product of a lifetime’s obsession by a Flemish professor of philology. It reconstructs Simenon’s family tree for ten generations on both his mother’s and his father’s side and is based on a detailed examination of communal records in Germany, Holland and Belgium over the last 450 years. I have also been able to consult, again for the first time by an English biographer, two other works by Belgian writers, Michel Lemoine’s Liege dans I’oeuvre de Simenon and JeanChristophe Camus’s Simenon avant Simenon: 1919-22, which is based on research in the archives of the Gazette de Liege and on an interesting correspondence with Simenon himself. The learned controversy on the origins of Maigret, referred to in Chapter Seven, was published in Traces No. 1 by the Centre d’Etudes Georges Simenon.
For the period of the war-time occupation and subsequent epuration the series of Les Lettres Frangaises, L’Ecran Frangais and Ce Soir published between September 1942 and January 1945 and held at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris were consulted.
M. Gallet, decede (The Death of Monsieur Gallet)
Le pendu de St Pholien (The Crime of Inspector Maigret )
Le charretier de ‘La Providence’ (The Crime at Lock 14)
Le chien jaune (A Face for a Clue)
Pietr-le-Letton (The Case of Peter the Lett)
La nuit du carrefour (The Crossroad Murders)
Un crime en Hollande (A Crime in Holland)
Au rendez-vous des Terre-Neuvas (The Sailors’ Rendez-vous)
La tete d’un homme (A Battle of Nerves)
La danseuse du Gai-Moulin (At the Gai-Moulin)
La guinguette a deux sous (The Guinguette by the Seine)
L’ombre chinoise (The Shadow in the Courtyard)
L’affaire Saint-Fiacre (The Saint-Fiacre Affair)
Chez les Flamands (The Flemish Shop )
Le fou de Bergerac (The Madman of Bergerac)
Le port des brumes (Death of a Harbour Master)
'Liberty Bar’ (Liberty Bar)
L’ecluse no. i (The Lock at Charenton)
Maigret (Maigret Returns)
Cecile est morte (Maigret and the Spinster)
Les caves du Majestic (Maigret and the Hotel Majestic)
La maison dujuge (Maigret in Exile)
Signe Picpus (To Any Lengths)
L’inspecteur cadavre (Maigret’s Rival)
Felicie est la (Maigret and the Toy Village)
Maigret se fache (Maigret in Retirement)
Maigret a New- York (Inspector Maigret in New York’s Underworld)
Maigret et son mort (Maigret’s Special Murder)
Les vacances de Maigret (A Summer Holiday)
La premiere enquete de Maigret (Maigret’s First Case)
Mon ami Maigret (My Friend Maigret)
Maigret chez le coroner (Maigret and the Coroner)
Maigret et la vieille dame (Maigret and the Old Lady)
L’amie de Mme Maigret (Madame Maigret’s Own Case)
Les memoires de Maigret (Maigret’s Memoirs)
Un noel de Maigret (Maigret’s Christmas)
Maigret au ‘Picratt’s’ (Maigret in Montmartre)
Maigret en meuble (Maigret Takes a Room)
Maigret et la grande perche (Maigret and the Burglar’s Wife)
Maigret, Lognon et les gangsters (Maigret and the Gangsters)
Le revolver de Maigret (Maigret’s Revolver)
Maigret et I’homme du banc (Maigret and the Man on the Boulevard)
328
THE MAN WHO WASN'T MAIGRET
Maigret a peur (Maigret Afraid)
Maigret se trompe (Maigret’s Mistake)
Maigret a I’ecole (Maigret Goes to School)
Maigret et lajeune morte (Maigret and the Young Girl)
Maigret chez le ministre (Maigret and the Minister)
Maigret et le corps sans tete (Maigret and the Headless Corpse)
Maigret tend un piege (Maigret Sets a Trap)
Un echec de Maigret (Maigret’s Failure)
Maigret s’amuse (Maigret’s Little Joke)
Maigret voyage (Maigret and the Millionaires)
Les scrupules de Maigret (Maigret Has Scruples)
Maigret et les temoins recalcitrants (Maigret and the Reluctant Witnesses) Une confidence de Maigret (Maigret Has Doubts)
Maigret aux Assises (Maigret in Court)
Maigret et les vieillards (Maigret in Society)
Maigret et le voleur paresseux (Maigret and the Lazy Burglar)
Maigret et les braves gens (Maigret and the Black Sheep)
Maigret et le client du Samedi (Maigret and the Saturday Caller)
Maigret et le clochard (Maigret and the Dosser)
La colere de Maigret (Maigret Loses his Temper)
Maigret et le fantome (Maigret and the Ghost)
Maigret se defend (Maigret on the Defensive)
La patience de Maigret (The Patience of Maigret)
Maigret et Vaffaire Nahour (Maigret and the Nahour Case)
Le voleur de Maigret (Maigret’s Pickpocket)
Maigret a Vichy (Maigret Takes the Waters )
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Maigret hesite (Maigret Hesitates)
L’ami d’enfance de Maigret (Maigret’s Boyhood Friend)
Maigret et le tueur (Maigret and the Killer)
Maigret et le marchand de vin (Maigret and the Wine Merchant) Lafolle de Maigret (Maigret and the Madwoman)
Maigret et Vhomme tout seul (Maigret and the Loner)
Maigret et I’indicateur (Maigret and the Flea)
Maigret et M. Charles (Maigret and Monsieur Charles)
Le relais d’Alsace (The Man from Everywhere)
Le passager du ‘Polarlys’ (The Mystery of the ‘Polarlys’)
Les fiangailles de M. Hire (Mr Hire’s Engagement)
Le coup de lune (Tropic Moon)
La maison du canal (The House by the Canal)
L’Ane-Rouge (The Night Club)
Les gens d’enface (The Window over the Way)
Le haut mal (The Woman of the Grey House)
L’homme de Londres (Newhaven-Dieppe)
Le locataire (The Lodger)
Les suicides (One Way Out)
Les Pitard (A Wife at Sea)
Les clients d’Avrenos Quartier negre
L’evade (The Disintegration ofJ.P.G.)
Long cours (The Long Exile)
Les demoiselles de Concarneau (The Breton Sisters)
45° a I’ombre (Aboard the Aquitaine)
Le testament Donadieu (The Shadow Falls)
L’assassin (The Murderer)
Le blanc a lunettes ( Talatala)
Faubourg (Home Town)
Ceux de la soif
Chemin sans issue (Blind Path)
Les rescapes du Telemaque (The Survivors)
Les trois crimes de mes amis Le suspect (The Green Thermos)
Les soeurs Lacroix (Poisoned Relations)
Touriste de bananes (Banana Tourist)
M. La Souris (Monsieur La Souris)
La Marie du Port (Chit of a Girl)
L’homme qui regardait passer les trains (The Man Who Watched the Trains Go By)
Le cheval blanc (The White Horse Inn)
Le coup de vague Chez Krull (Chez Krull)
Le bourgmestre de Fumes (The Burgomaster of Fumes)
Malempin (The Family Lie)
Les inconnus dans la maison (The Strangers in the House)
Corn d’assises (Justice)
Bergelon (The Country Doctor)
L’outlaw (The Outlaw)
II pleut, bergere . . . (Black Rain)
Le voyageur de la Toussaint (Strange Inheritance)
La maison de septjeunes files
Oncle Charles s’est enferme La veuve Couderc (Ticket of Leave)
Le fils Cardinaud (Young Cardinaud)
La verite sur Bebe Donge (The Trial of Bebe Donge)
Le rapport du gendarme (The Gendarme’s Report )
La fuite de M. Monde (Monsieur Monde Vanishes)
La fenetre des Rouet (Across the Street)
L’aine des Ferchaux (The First-born)
Les noces de Poitiers (The Couple from Poitiers)
Le cercle de Make
Trois chambres a Manhattan (Three Beds in Manhattan)
Au bout du rouleau
Lettre a monjuge (Act of Passion)
Le destin des Malou (The Fate of the Malous)
Le clan des Ostendais (The Ostenders)
Le passager clandestin (The Stowaway)
Le bilan Maletras (The Reckoning)
La jument perdue
La neige etait sale (The Stain on the Snow)
Pedigree (Pedigree)
Le fond de la bouteille (The Bottom of the Bottle)
Les fantomes du chapelier (The Hatter’s Ghosts)
Les quatre jours du pauvre homme (Four Days in a Lifetime)
Un nouveau dans la ville
L’enterrement de M. Bouvet (The Burial of Monsieur Bouvet) Les volets verts (The Heart of a Man)
Tante Jeanne (Aunt Jeanne)
Le temps d’Anais (The Girl in his Past)
Une vie comme neuve (A New Lease of Life)
Marie qui louche (The Girl with a Squint)
La mort de Belle (Belle)
Les freres Rico (The Brothers Rico)
Antoine et Julie (The Magician)
L’escalier defer (The Iron Staircase )
Feux rouges (Red Lights)
Crime impuni (The Fugitive)
L’horloger d’Everton (The Watchmaker ofEverton)
Le grand Bob (Big Bob)
Les temoins (The Witnesses)
La boule noire
Les complices (The Accomplices)
En cas de malheur (In Case of Emergency)
Le petit homme d’Arkhangelsk (The Little Man from Archangel)
Le fils (The Son)
Le negre (The Negro)
Strip-tease (Striptease)
Le president (The Premier)
Le passage de la ligne Dimanche (Sunday)
La vieille (The Grandmother)
Le veuf (The Widower)
L’ours en peluche (Teddy Bear)
Betty (Betty)
Le train (The Train)
La porte (The Door)
Les autres (The Others)
Les anneaux de Bicetre (The Patient)
La chambre bleue (The Blue Room)
L’homme au petit chien (The Man with the Little Dog)
Le petit saint (The Little Saint)
Le train de Venise (The Venice Train)
Le confessionnal (The Confessional)
La mort dAuguste (The Old Man Dies)
Le chat (The Cat)
Le demenagement (The Neighbours)
La prison (The Prison)
La main (The Man on the Bench in the Barn)
II y a encore des noisetiers Novembre ( November)
Le riche homme (The Rich Man)
La disparition d’Odile (The Disappearance of Odile) La cage de verre (The Glass Cage)
Les innocents (The Innocents)
Je me souviens (1945)
Quand j’etais vieux (When I Was Old; 1970) Lettre a ma mere (Letter To My Mother; 1974)
Dictees:
Un homme comme un autre (1975)
Des traces de pas (1975)
Les petits hommes (1976)
Vent du nord, vent du sud (1976)
Un banc au soleil (1977)
De la cave au grenier (1977)
A Vabri de notre arbre (1977)
Tant queje suis vivant (1978)
Vacances obligatoires (1978)
La main dans la main (1978)
Au-dela de ma porte-fenetre (1978)
Je suis reste un enfant de choeur (1979)
A quoi bonjurer? (1979)
Point-virgule (1979)
Le prix d’un homme (1980)
On dit que j’ai soixante-quinze ans (1980) Quand vient le froid (1980)
Les libertes qu’il nous reste (1980)
La femme endormie (1981)
Jour et nuit (1981)
Destinees (1981)
Memoires intimes (Intimate Memoirs; 1981)
An Pont des Arches (1921)
Jehan Pinaguet (unpublished; 1921)
Les ridicules (unpublished; 1921) by Georges Sim or Christian Brulls La maison de Vinquietude (1930)
Train de nuit (1930)
La femme rousse (1933)
Short stories
‘Les 13 mysteres’ (1932)
‘La chanteuse de Pigalle’ (1952)
‘L’invalide a la tete de bois’ (1952)
‘Le gros lot’ (1953)
Various
Mes apprentissages (collected journalism 1931-58, ed. F. Lacassin and G. Sigaux)
Vol 1: A la decouverte de la France Vol 2: A la recherche de Vhomme nu Vol 3: A la rencontre des autres
Compte-Rendu de Mission, La Rochelle (unpublished official report, 1940)
Address to the Academie Roy ale, Brussels (1952)
Les demis de Maigret (unpublished lecture, 1953)
Eloge de la luxure (unused radio broadcast, 1956)
Honore de Balzac ; portrait by Georges Simenon (text of radio broadcast of 1960)
La Naissance de Maigret (essay 1966)
‘Dear Hamish ’ (unpublished tribute for fiftieth anniversary of Hamish Hamilton’s publishing house, 1978)
Les cinq sens (unpublished essay, 1980)
Adam International Review (ed. Miron Grindea) No. 34 (Autumn 1969) Amouroux, Henri Les reglements de comptes (Paris 1944-5)
Assouline, Pierre Gaston Gallimard (Paris 1984)
Bertrand, Alain Georges Simenon (Lyon 1988)
Bourdrel, Philippe L’epuration sauvage 1944-45, 2 vols (Paris 1988, 1991) Boutry, M.P. Les 300 vies de Simenon (Paris 1990)
Brassai The Secret Paris (London 1976)
Bresler, Fenton The Mystery of Georges Simenon (London 1983)
‘Cahiers du Nord’, nos. 2-3 (Paris 1939)
‘Cahiers Simenon’ Les amis de Georges Simenon, no. 4 (Brussels 1990)
. Camus, J.-C. Simenon avant Simenon 1919-22 (Brussels 1989)
— Simenon avant Simenon 1923-31 (Brussels 1990)
Chastenet, P. et Ph. Simenon: Album de famille (Paris 1989)
Cobb, Richard French and Germans, Germans and French (USA 1983)
— People and Places (Oxford 1985)
Cocteau, Jean Journals (Paris 1956)
Crespelle, J.P. La vie quotidienne a Montparnasse a la grande epoque 1905-30 (Paris 1976)
Debray-Ritzen, P. Georges Simenon (Lausanne 1989)
Dessane, Odile Le phallus d’or (Paris 1981) [see Simenon, Denyse] Elsdorf, M. Petits metiers et cris des rues (Liege 1989)
Eskin, Stanley Simenon: a critical biography (USA 1987)
Fabre, Jean Enquete sur un enqueteur (Montpelier 1981)
Fallois, Bernard de Simenon (Lausanne 1971)
Gaillandre, A. Aspects du titre chez Simenon (unpublished MA thesis, Dept of Linguistics, Montreal University 1987)
Gauteur, Claude Simenon au cinema (Brussels 1984)
Gill, Brendan ‘Out of the Dark’, New Yorker (26 January 1953) Highsmith, Patricia ‘Filatures’, Liberation (Paris, 3 March 1988)
Jacob, Max Lettres a Jean Cocteau 1919-44 (Paris 1949)
Jadoux, Henri Sacha Guitry: Le theatre et I’amour (Paris 1985)
Junger, Ernst Journal Parisien (Paris 1980)
Kaspi, A. et Mares, A. Le Paris des etrangers (Paris 1989)
Lacassin, F. Conversations avec Simenon (Geneva 1990)
Lacassin et Sigaux, eds. Simenon (Paris 1973)
Lemoine, Michel Index des personnages de Georges Simenon (Brussels 1985)
— Liege dans I’oeuvre de Simenon (Liege 1989)
Lottman, Herbert Colette (Paris 1990)
MacShane, Frank The Life of Raymond Chandler (London 1976)
Mauriac, Claude L’alitterature contemporaine (Paris 1958)
Narcejac, T. Le cas Simenon (Paris 1950)
Novick, Peter L’epuration frangaise 1944—49 (Paris 1985)
Ory, Pascal Les collaborateurs 1940-45 (Paris 1976)
Piron, Maurice L’univers de Simenon (Paris 1983)
Pivot, Bernard ‘Carnets’, Lire (October 1989)
Ragache, G. et J.-P. La vie quotidienne des ecrivains et des artistes sous Voccupation 1940-44 (Paris 1988)
336
THE MAN WHO WASN’T MAIGRET
Raymond, John Simenon in Court (London 1968)
Rioux, J.-P., ed. La vie culturelle sous Vichy (Paris 1990)
Rutten, Mathieu Simenon: ses origines, sa vie, son oeuvre (Bruges 1977) Sauvage, Marcel Les memoires de Josephine Baker (Paris 1949)
Siclier, Jacques La France de Petain et son cinema (Paris 1981)
Simenon, Denyse Un oiseau pour le chat (Paris 1978)
— Le phallus d’or [see Dessane, Odile]
‘Simenon sur le gril’, interview with five doctors published in Medecine et Hygiene, Geneva (5 June 1968)
Stephane, Roger Portrait souvenir de Georges Simenon (Paris 1989) Symons, Julian Bloody Murder (London 1972)
Tillinac, Denis Le mystere Simenon (Paris 1980)
‘Traces’, Travaux du Centre d’Etudes Georges Simenon, nos 1, 2 (Liege 1989, 1990)
Vilar, J.-F. ‘Le cadavre sans tete d’une ombre rouge’, J’Accuse (July 1990)
Williams, R., ed. G. Simenon: a bibliography (Dragonby Press 1988) Young, T. G. Simenon: a checklist (USA 1976)