September 1, 1970

Francois Mauriac (October 11, 1885 to September 1, 1970), "the eminent and devout Catholic writer," explored in his novels the nature of evil. He was admitted to the Academie Francaise in 1933 and was awarded the Nobel for literature in 1952. The world Mauriac saw after World War II ended, was alarming even to him:

"We who live beneath a sky still streaked with the smoke of crematoriums have paid a high price to find out that evil is really evil."

About intellectual colleagues like Sartre. Mauriac said, "We got along like a cat and a dog, but he is a very fine man, nonetheless.” I suspect Mauriac was being polite. Not that Sartre was an active collaborationist, but Mauriac after all, was one of those with unblemished reputations after the war who argued for leniency towards the collaborationists. His comment about Sartre we found in a book titled Regarding Heroes, (2009) by Yousef Karsh, and edited by David Travis. About writers who influenced him, Mauriac mentioned Blaise Pascal, in google translated words: "I doubt that without him I was remained faithful"

Mauriac's novels are a bit depressing, but they may mention cats. He had a cat, certainly in his later years: he said that cats do not know that you are old and ugly.

Karsh did not take the photograph below. Whoever did, (I found it in the Encyclopedie Larousse) managed to capture on film something elusive, a quiet understanding between two people. In this case, Mauriac, on the left, and Andre Gide.