Andre Maurois Novelist

• Gender: Male
• Citizenship: France
• Born: Jul 26, 1885
• Died: Oct 9, 1967

André Maurois, born Emile Salomon Wilhelm Herzog (26 July 1885 - 9 October 1967) was a French author.

Maurois was born in Elbeuf and educated at the Lycée Pierre Corneille in Rouen, both in Normandy. Maurois was the son of Ernest Herzog, a Jewish textile manufacturer, and Alice (Lévy-Rueff) Herzog. His family had fled Alsace after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 - 1871 and took refuge in Normandy, where they owned a woollen mill at Elbeuf.

During World War I he joined the French army and served as an interpreter and later a liaison officer to the British army. His first novel, Les silences du colonel Bramble, was a witty but socially realistic account of that experience. It was an immediate success in France. It was translated and also became popular in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries as The Silence of Colonel Bramble. Many of his other works have also been translated into English (mainly by Hamish Miles (1894 - 1937)), as they often dealt with British people or topics, such as his biographies of Disraeli, Byron, and Shelley.