Henry Malherbe
Henri Émile Hermand Malherbe, also known as Henry Malherbe or Henry Croisilles (4 February 1886[1][n 1] – 17 March 1958) was a French writer.[2]
Life and career
Malherbe was born in Bucharest.[1] In Paris he wrote for Le Temps,[3] the magazine Excelsior,[4] and later for La Revue des vivants, ("organe de la génération de la guerre"), of which he was co-director with Henry de Jouvenel.[5]
Malherbe fought in the First World War. In 1919 he was a co-founder and first president of the Association des écrivains combattants [fr].[n 2] In 1953 the association established the Henry Malherbe Prize for essays in his honour.[2] In 1917 Malherbe won the Prix Goncourt for the novel La flamme au poing,[2] (literally, "The Flame in the Fist", published in English translation in 1918 as The Flame that is France).[7] In 1918 the reviewer in the magazine North American Review wrote:
In The Flame That Is France we have to do with the work of a poet. That M. Malherbe writes in prose does not, of course, alter this fact. His musings over deep things, his fragmentary, intense picturings of action or character, have the meaning of poetry and are expressed in its language. … for his accounts of agony, grief, death, the grappling of the mind with horror – he finds words of bare simplicity. But always in the intensity, the impassioned calmness, of his realizations he is a poet.[8]
Music
Malherbe took a particular interest in musical matters. His interview with Claude Debussy in 1911 is quoted extensively by the composer's biographer Léon Vallas;[9] his criticisms of the Conservatoire de Paris for what he saw as its reactionary agenda and declining standards were reported in Britain and the US, in The Times and by Richard Aldrich, music critic of The New York Times.[10] As a critic, Malherbe was less inclined than some of his colleagues to take new works at face value: he spotted, as many other critics did not, what he called "the heated eroticism" that lay below the seemingly "innocent neoclassical surface" of Francis Poulenc's 1924 ballet Les biches.[11]
In his book about Bizet's Carmen, published in 1951, Malherbe offered what the journal Hommes et mondes called an analysis "of rare lucidity" of the origins, libretto and score of the opera, and presented hitherto unpublished information about the circumstances of the composer's early death; in this Malherbe raised the possibility that unhappy in love and in despair at "the conspiracy of critics who had condemned Carmen", Bizet may not have died of illness but had killed himself.[12]
Malherbe's other books on music attracted some adverse comment from his contemporaries for his propensity to speculate about his subjects. His biography of Schubert (1949) was criticised in Music & Letters for "sketches circumstantially describing scenes for which we have not a shred of evidence. … M. Malherbe allows himself again and again to be carried away by his enthusiasm into writing bookstall fiction."[13] His 1938 Richard Wagner révolutionnaire also suffered from some "rather fictitious" biography, according to the Revue De Musicologie.[14]
Later years
Malherbes was appointed a Commandeur de la Légion d'Honneur in April 1953.[2] He died in Paris in 1958, at the age of 72.[1]
Works
- Paul Hervieu E. Sansot & cie, 1912
- La Flamme au poing. A. Michel. 1917.
Henry Malherbe.
- Le Jugement dernier, Éditions de la Sirène, 1920
- La Rocque : un chef, des actes, des idées, suivi de documents sur les doctrines de la rénovation nationale Librairie Plon, 1934
- La passion de la Malibran, A. Michel, 1937
- Richard Wagner révolutionnaire A. Michel, 1938
- Aux États-Unis, printemps du monde, A. Michel, 1945
- Franz Schubert, son amour, ses amitiés, A. Michel, 1949
- Carmen Michel, 1951
English Translations
- The flame that is France. Translated by Van Wyck Brooks. New York: Century. 1918.
Henry Malherbe.
Notes, references and sources
Notes
- ^ Some sources give 1887 as his year of birth.
- ^ The association’s website states that it consists of eminent men of letters who have carried arms for France. Its presidents after Malherbe include Roland Dorgelès, Claude Farrère, Maurice Genevoix and Erwan Bergot. In addition to Sir Winston Churchill as an honorary member, writers honoured by the association include Raymond Léopold Bruckberger, Jean Bernard, Paul Guth, Maurice Schumann and Pierre Messmer.[6]
References
- ^ a b c "Henry Malherbe (1886–1958)" Archived 2015-07-25 at the Wayback Machine, Bibliothèque nationale de France, retrieved 19 June 2018
- ^ a b c d "Les prix littéraires" Archived 2018-04-06 at the Wayback Machine, Association des Écrivains Combattants, retrieved 19 June 2018 (in French)
- ^ Blake, p. 82
- ^ Vallas, p. 224
- ^ La Revue des vivants Archived 2018-06-19 at the Wayback Machine, February 1927, page 1
- ^ "Bienvenue sur le site de l'A.E.C." Archived 2018-03-29 at the Wayback Machine, Association des Écrivains Combattants, retrieved 19 June 2018 (in French)
- ^ "The Flame that is France" Archived 2018-06-19 at the Wayback Machine, WorldCat, retrieved 19 June 2018
- ^ "The Flame that is France by Henry Malherbe" Archived 2018-06-19 at the Wayback Machine, North American Review, vol. 208, no. 755, 1918, pp. 618–620 (subscription required)
- ^ Vallas, pp. 224–226
- ^ Young Musicians, The Times, 4 August 1928, p. 10
- ^ Malherbe, Henry. Chronique musicale – "Les spectatrices écoutent l'ouvrage, dont la forme néo-classique enveloppe finement le vif érotisme", quoted in Christopher Moore. "Camp in Francis Poulenc's Early Ballets" Archived 2018-06-19 at the Wayback Machine, The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 95, No. 2/3 (Summer-Fall 2012), p. 319 (subscription required)
- ^ "B. S." "Carmen by Henry Malherbe" Archived 2018-06-19 at the Wayback Machine, Hommes et mondes, July 1951, p. 311 (in French) (subscription required)
- ^ "E. B." "Franz Schubert: son amour, ses amitiés by Henry Malherbe" Archived 2018-06-19 at the Wayback Machine, Music & Letters, vol. 30, no. 4, 1949, p. 390 (subscription required)
- ^ "J.-G. P." "Wagner révolutionnaire by Henry Malherbe", Revue De Musicologie, vol. 21, no. 1, 1942, pp. 12–13 (in French) (subscription required)
Sources
- Blake, Jody (1999). Le tumulte noir: modernist art and popular entertainment in Jazz-Age Paris, 1900-1930. Penn State Press. ISBN 978-0-271-01753-2.
- Vallas, Léon (1933). Claude Debussy: His Life and Works. Translated by Maire O'Brien; Grace O'Brien. Oxford: Oxford University Press. OCLC 458329645.
- v
- t
- e
- 1903 John Antoine Nau
- 1904 Léon Frapié
- 1905 Claude Farrère
- 1906 Jérôme Tharaud and Jean Tharaud
- 1907 Émile Moselly
- 1908 Francis de Miomandre
- 1909 Marius-Ary Leblond
- 1910 Louis Pergaud
- 1911 Alphonse de Châteaubriant
- 1912 André Savignon
- 1913 Marc Elder
- 1914 Adrien Bertrand
- 1915 René Benjamin
- 1916 Henri Barbusse
- 1917 Henry Malherbe
- 1918 Georges Duhamel
- 1919 Marcel Proust
- 1920 Ernest Pérochon
- 1921 René Maran
- 1922 Henri Béraud
- 1923 Lucien Fabre
- 1924 Thierry Sandre
- 1925 Maurice Genevoix
- 1926 Henri Deberly
- 1927 Maurice Bedel
- 1928 Maurice Constantin-Weyer
- 1929 Marcel Arland
- 1930 Henri Fauconnier
- 1931 Jean Fayard
- 1932 Guy Mazeline
- 1933 André Malraux
- 1934 Roger Vercel
- 1935 Joseph Peyré
- 1936 Maxence Van der Meersch
- 1937 Charles Plisnier
- 1938 Henri Troyat
- 1939 Philippe Hériat
- 1940 Francis Ambrière
- 1941 Henri Pourrat
- 1942 Marc Bernard
- 1943 Marius Grout
- 1944 Elsa Triolet
- 1945 Jean-Louis Bory
- 1946 Jean-Jacques Gautier
- 1947 Jean-Louis Curtis
- 1948 Maurice Druon
- 1949 Robert Merle
- 1950 Paul Colin
- 1951 Julien Gracq
- 1952 Béatrix Beck
- 1953 Pierre Gascar
- 1954 Simone de Beauvoir
- 1955 Roger Ikor
- 1956 Romain Gary
- 1957 Roger Vailland
- 1958 Francis Walder
- 1959 André Schwarz-Bart
- 1960 Vintilă Horia
- 1961 Jean Cau
- 1962 Anna Langfus
- 1963 Armand Lanoux
- 1964 Georges Conchon
- 1965 Jacques Borel
- 1966 Edmonde Charles-Roux
- 1967 André Pieyre de Mandiargues
- 1968 Bernard Clavel
- 1969 Félicien Marceau
- 1970 Michel Tournier
- 1971 Jacques Laurent
- 1972 Jean Carrière
- 1973 Jacques Chessex
- 1974 Pascal Lainé
- 1975 Émile Ajar (Romain Gary)
- 1976 Patrick Grainville
- 1977 Didier Decoin
- 1978 Patrick Modiano
- 1979 Antonine Maillet
- 1980 Yves Navarre
- 1981 Lucien Bodard
- 1982 Dominique Fernandez
- 1983 Frédérick Tristan
- 1984 Marguerite Duras
- 1985 Yann Queffélec
- 1986 Michel Host
- 1987 Tahar Ben Jelloun
- 1988 Érik Orsenna
- 1989 Jean Vautrin
- 1990 Jean Rouaud
- 1991 Pierre Combescot
- 1992 Patrick Chamoiseau
- 1993 Amin Maalouf
- 1994 Didier Van Cauwelaert
- 1995 Andreï Makine
- 1996 Pascale Roze
- 1997 Patrick Rambaud
- 1998 Paule Constant
- 1999 Jean Echenoz
- 2000 Jean-Jacques Schuhl
- 2001 Jean-Christophe Rufin
- 2002 Pascal Quignard
- 2003 Jacques-Pierre Amette
- 2004 Laurent Gaudé
- 2005 François Weyergans
- 2006 Jonathan Littell
- 2007 Gilles Leroy
- 2008 Atiq Rahimi
- 2009 Marie NDiaye
- 2010 Michel Houellebecq
- 2011 Alexis Jenni
- 2012 Jérôme Ferrari
- 2013 Pierre Lemaitre
- 2014 Lydie Salvayre
- 2015 Mathias Énard
- 2016 Leïla Slimani
- 2017 Éric Vuillard
- 2018 Nicolas Mathieu
- 2019 Jean-Paul Dubois
- 2020 Hervé Le Tellier
- 2021 Mohamed Mbougar Sarr
- 2022 Brigitte Giraud
- 2023 Jean-Baptiste Andrea