Marcel Aymé

Marcel Aymé 29 March 1902 14 October 1967 was a French novelist and playwright who also wrote screenplays and works for children Marcel André Aymé was born in Joigny in the Burgundy region of France the youngest of six children His father Joseph was a blacksmith and his mother Emma Monamy died when he was two years old after the family had moved to Tours Marcel was sent to live with his maternal grandparents in the village of VillersRobert a place where he would spend the next eight years and which would serve as the model for the fictitious village of Claquebue in what is perhaps the most wellknown of his novels La Jument verte In 1906 Marcel entered the local primary school Because his grandfather was a staunch anticlerical republican he was looked down upon by his classmates many of whose parents held more traditional views Accordingly Marcel was not baptized before reaching the age of eight nearly two years after the death of his grandfather in 1908 Orphaned once more when his grandmother died two years later he briefly lived with other family members before moving to Dole a small town of the FrancheComte region to stay with an aunt and attend the Collège de lArc where he demonstrated more ability in mathematics than in literature His years at school there were an unpleasant experience he would never look back on fondly Despite ongoing issues with his health that had begun when he was a child Aymé was able to perform his military service which began in 1919 as part of an artillery unit in the occupied Rhineland In 1923 he moved to Paris where he worked unsuccessfully at a bank an insurance company and as a journalist Though he failed in his career as a reporter his stint at the newspaper allowed him to discover his love of writing His first published novel was Brûlebois 1926 and in 1929 his La Table aux crevés won the Prix Renaudot After the great success of his novel La Jument verte 1933 translated into English as The Green Mare he concentrated mostly on writing and published childrens stories novels and collections of stories In 1935 he also started writing movie scripts In theater Marcel Aymé found success with his plays Lucienne et le boucher Clérambard 1949 a farce and Tête des autres 1952 which criticized the death penalty He died in 1967 and was buried in the Cimetière SaintVincent in the Montmartre Quarter of Paris One of Aymés most famous short stories is Le passemuraille or The WalkerThroughWalls At the age of 42 Dutilleul suddenly discovers that he has the remarkable gift of being able to pass through walls with perfect ease What begins as a novelty that gives him pleasure ends up pushing Dutilleul toward ever more sinister pursuits Visitors to Paris can see a monument in his honor at Place MarcelAymé in the Montmartre Quarter The statue is based upon his short story Le passemuraille The Walker through Walls Source Article Marcel Aymé from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30