Le dossier de presse - Musée des lettres et manuscrits

PRESS PACK
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Georges Simenon and the writing
In the part of the exhibition dedicated to “Georges Simenon and the writing”, the visitor discovers, through
two documents emblematic of his writing work (a yellow envelope and a calendar) the true legend which
was constituted around Simenon’s character (legend that he preserved while being in the limelight and
leading a showy existence). The writer was not generous with his secrets and we know perfectly the ritual
he adopted. He created a project written on yellow envelopes and had a strict writing time scale, which was
completed in a kind of trance state. Besides, despite its quantity (more than two hundred novels signed
by him), Simenon’s production remained homogeneous: it revisited constantly the same obsessional
topics, with a very stable sensitivity and a style that had not changed a lot, particularly in his description
of monotonous existence of modest and very ordinary characters to whom his sympathy was dedicated.
Georges Simenon, America and Denyse Ouimet
In 1945, Simenon, whose relations began to deteriorate with Gaston Gallimard, signed an agreement
with the newly created Presses de la Cité, before leaving France for America, where he arrived on 5
October 1945 with Tigy and Marc. He was 42, and a new life began, soon shaken by a meeting: while he
was living with his family in a hamlet in Quebec for a month, he wanted to hire a bilingual assistant, and
met in New York, Denyse Ouimet, a lovely 25-year-old Canadian woman who became his mistress the
very same day of their first meeting, and was quickly an important part of the professional and the love's
life of Simenon, so much that he decided to break up with Tigy. At the beginning of 1949, Denyse was
pregnant. In June 1950, Simenon divorced from Tigy and married Denyse the day after, a few months
after the birth of John Simenon, second child of Georges, in Tucson (Arizona).
Shortly after, the whole family (including Tigy) moved out, but the relationship between the young married
couple quickly began to deteriorate. They moved out again but happiness was not there, although the
novels followed one another at a frantic rhythm and were translated in the entire world.
Georges Simenon and his return to Europe
In 1952, Georges Simenon decided to make a trip to Europe: after a triumphal tour in Paris, he went to his
hometown of Liège where he was welcomed as a hero, despite some problems such as harassment from
fellow Belgians who wanted to squeeze money out of him. He then went to Brussels where he was appointed
member of the Royal Academy of French Language and Literature of Belgium, before going back to Paris.
The birth of Marie-Jo on 23 February 1953 was again a moment of joy for this man who always wanted
to have a daughter while the family atmosphere deteriorated progressively. Two years later, he decided
to return to Europe and settled down in the South of France, where he wrote several “psychological
novels” such as En cas de malheur or Le Fils, and two Maigret books.
In 1957, he moved to Echandens (Switzerland) where he met several years later his last female companion.