Pierre Benoit

Who was Pierre Benoit?

Pierre Benoit was a French novelist and member of the Académie française.

Pierre Benoit, born in Albi was the son of a French soldier. Benoit spent his early years and military service in Northern Africa, before becoming a civil servant. His first novel, Koenigsmark, was published during 1918; L'Atlantide was published the next year and was awarded the Grand Prize of the Académie française. Benoit became a member of the Académie during 1931.

A political right-winger, Benoit was an admirer of the French fascist Charles Maurras. During the Nazi Occupation of France, Benoît joined the "Groupe Collaboration", a pro-Nazi arts group whose other members included Abel Bonnard, Georges Claude and Pierre Drieu La Rochelle. This led him to be arrested in September 1944; he was eventually released after six months, but his work remained on the "blacklist" of French Nazi collaborators for several years afterwards.

Late in his life, Benoit gave a series of interviews with the French writer Paul Guimard.

He died in March 1962 in Ciboure.