Andre Malraux

@Novelists, Timeline and Childhood

André Malraux was a French novelist and art theorist who became France’s first ‘Minister of Cultural Affairs’

Nov 3, 1901

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Biography

Personal Details

  • Birthday: November 3, 1901
  • Died on: November 23, 1976
  • Nationality: French
  • Famous: Novelists, Writers, Novelists
  • Spouses: Clara Goldschmidt
  • Siblings: Roland Malraux
  • Childrens: Florence

Andre Malraux born at

Paris, France

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Birth Place

In 1922, he married Clara Goldschmidt and they were blessed with a daughter, Florence, in 1933. But, they got separated in 1938 and eventually divorced in 1947.

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Personal Life

He went to live with Josette Clotis, journalist and novelist, in 1933. They had two sons, Pierre-Gauthier and Vincent. Unfortunately, Josette died in 1944, when she slipped while boarding a train. Their sons died in 1961 in an automobile accident.

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Personal Life

In 1948, he tied the knot with Marie-Madeleine Lioux, a concert pianist and his widowed sister-in-law. But they got separated in 1966.

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Personal Life

He was born on November 3, 1901 in Paris, France to Fernand-Georges Malraux, a stockbroker, and his wife, Berthe Lamy.

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Childhood & Early Life

In 1905, his parents got divorced. He was brought up by his mother, maternal aunt Marie and maternal grandmother, Adrienne Lamy-Romagna.

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Childhood & Early Life

He was a nervous child with some motor and vocal twitches but it did not affect his later life or literary works.

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Childhood & Early Life

He attended the Lycée Condorcet and the School of Oriental Languages but left formal education at an early age. Since then, he educated himself with all the knowledge he could gather from libraries and museums of Paris.

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Childhood & Early Life

In 1923, he along with his wife, traveled to Cambodia in search of lost Khmer temples. His aim was to collect antiques from the temple and sell them to art museums at high prices. But he was arrested by the French colonial authorities for his act of removing sculptures from the temple.

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Career

He returned to his country in 1926 after finishing his jail sentence. By then, he had become highly critical of the French colonial authorities through his experiences in Indochina.

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Career

In 1928, he published his first novel ‘The Conquerors’, followed by another one in 1930, ‘The Royal Way’. Both the novels depict his experiences of Cambodia.

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Career

In 1938, he published ‘L'Espoir’ (Man's Hope), a novel influenced by his Spanish civil war experiences.

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Career

During World War II, he joined the French Army. He was captured twice by the allies but he managed to escape and joined the French Resistance.

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Career

In 1933, he published his most celebrated novel, ‘La Condition Humaine’, about the 1927 failed Communist rebellion in Shanghai. It deals with the human emotion to fight for its existence and the fact that a man determines his own fate by the choices he makes.

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Major Works

In 1958, he became France’s first ‘Minister of Cultural Affairs’. He proved to be an innovative and dynamic cultural administrator working to preserve France's national heritage and launching campaigns to restore the splendor of notable French buildings.

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Major Works