Le dossier de presse - Musée des lettres et manuscrits

DOSSIER DE PRESSE
10
Georges Simenon and Maigret
In the part dedicated to “Georges Simenon and Maigret”, there is a document signed by the author (in
collaboration with a middle-school class), in which he made an inventory of the characteristics of the
famous commissaire that would enable him to achieve an international success. Maigret was created
during his life with Régine Renchon, during which Simenon took his master mariner certifi cate, while
Tigy learns mechanics in a garage. In fact, they wanted to go to sea aboard a boat called the Ostrogoth,
and took off to the Far North. Thus, Captain Simenon, Tigy and their loyal cooker crossed Belgium,
the Netherlands before getting on an ocean liner that took them to the North. During a call in Delfzijl, a
Dutch harbour, where the vessel had to be caulked that Simenon started to write a novel in which a new
character appears: a certain Maigret… According to one of the legends that Simenon liked to keep, the
famous Commissaire was born in September 1929 in a Dutch harbour. In reality, Maigret already existed
in other stories, and in several popular novels, but in a less developed form. By the end of 1930, the
novelist had written several investigations from Commissaire Maigret, published from February 1931,
with some reluctance from Fayard. The novelist turned into a marketing specialist when he organized a
dinner where the Parisian high society was invited, the famous “Bal anthropométrique” in a night-club
of Montparnasse where the guests were dressed up as gangsters and prostitutes! It was an immediate
success and the film industry became infatuated with the Commissaire.
Still, in 1934, he decided to give up the Maigret series, and to change his editor, leaving after rough
negotiations Fayard for Gallimard. Yet, the admission of the famous novelist in the highly literary spheres
was not easy, and he lost all the literary prizes. But at the same time, he met André Gide, a great admirer
of Simenon whose creativity captivated him.
Georges Simenon and the post-war years
As he neared forty, the author, edited by a prestigious house, ensured of comfortable income and
sentimentally happy with Tigy, asked the latter to give him a child: Marc Simenon was born on 19 April
1939 in a private hospital in the suburb of Brussels.
The war surprised the Simenon family in its house of Nieul, near La Rochelle. Appointed high commissioner
for the Belgian refugees, the writer fulfilled his duties with effi ciency and devotion, while limiting himself
to a careful impartiality, conformed to his individualistic disposition. He continued to publish articles, in
collaborationist papers, despite the censorship and the lack of paper which would be reproached to him
during the Liberation of France, because he reserved exclusivity of his Maigret series to the Continental,
a German production, and nine of his works were adapted during the Military occupation. The Liberation
was not easy for the novelist, who were put under house arrest and questioned, before his case was
closed. Nevertheless, he remained shaken and only wanted to leave France.