Georges Simenon

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Georges Joseph Christian Simenon (February 13, 1903–September 4, 1989) was a Belgian writer who wrote in French. Image:Simenon liège.jpg Simenon was born in Liège to Henriette and Desire (father). He quit school at the age of 16 to work as a baker's apprentice, before transitorily taking jobs as a book clerk and then newspaper reporter.^{[{{fullurl:}}#endnote_baker]} He established himself in Paris in 1922, first as a prolific pulp writer. He travelled widely and stayed in the United States for ten years, from 1945 until 1955. In 1957, he moved to Switzerland.

Simenon was one of the most prolific writers of the twentieth century. He was able to write 60 to 80 pages a day. During his lifetime, he published about 450 novels and short stories. He is best known, however, for his 75 novels and 28 short stories featuring Commissaire Maigret. The first novel in the series, Pietr-Le-Letton, appeared in 1931; the last one, Maigret et M. Charles, was published in 1972. The Maigret novels were translated into all major languages and several of them were turned into a film (starting with La nuit du carrefour, adapted for the screen by Jean Renoir as early as 1932).

During his "American" period, Simenon reached the height of his creative powers, and several novels of those years were inspired by the context in which they were written (Trois chambres à Manhattan (1946), Maigret à New York (1947), Maigret se fâche (1947)).

Simenon also wrote a large number of "psychological novels", such as La neige était sale (1948) or Le fils (1957), as well as several autobiographical works, in particular Je me souviens (1945), Pedigree (1948), Mémoires intimes (1981).

Simenon was known as "the man of 10,000 women", a self-confessed sex addict who "needed" to have sex three times a day. Quite a few women were prepared to humour him for nothing, but that total was said to include 8,000 prostitutes.

In this he was quite different from his fictional creation, Maigret, a homely sort of chap (when he wasn't in the bar).

Georges Simenon died in sleep at his Lausanne home.

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