Alain-Fournier,
pseudonym of Henri Alban Fournier
(
La Chapelle-d'Angillon , October 3
1886 - Les
Éparges ,
September 22 1914) was a writer
French, died at the age twenty-seven years after he wrote only one novel
,
The Great Meaulnes (The great friend or even
). The son of teachers, he spent his childhood in
Sologne and Berry Low
. Until 1898 he studied at the school Epineuil-le-Fleuriel, where his father taught, then joined the School as a boarder Voltaire in Paris. In 1901, intending to enter the Ecole Navale, Brest went to high school, but soon gave up the idea. After obtaining his baccalauréat from high school in Bourges in 1903, he enrolled in high school Lakanal to
Sceaux near Paris
to prepare for the competition for admission to 'École
Normale Supérieure , but could not overcome. In this period formed a deep friendship with Jacques Rivière
, who married Isabelle Fournier, younger sister of his friend, in 1909
. In June
1905, during a brief stroll along the quays of the Seine
, Alain-Fournier Quiévrecourt met Yvonne, who would become the first great love of his life, and from which he drew inspiration for the character of Yvonne de Calais in his novel. He would have found only eight years later, married and mother of two children. After failing once again in 1907, the entrance exam for the Ecole Normale Supérieure,
from 1908 to 1909
military service. He returned to Paris in 1910
, he obtained a post as an editor at Paris-Journal
. There he met André Gide
and Paul Claudel . After leaving the drafting of the Paris-Journal
in
1912, became secretary of the political
Casimir Perrier . During this period, Alain-Fournier worked on his novel
, Le Grand Meaulnes
, inspired by autobiographical memories. The novel was serialized in the Nouvelle Revue Française
in
1913, and then in volume from the publisher Paul-Emile. Le Grand Meaulnes
was selected to compete for the prestigious Prix Goncourt
. In 1914
, Alain-Fournier was about to write a play,
La maison dans la forêt , and a second novel, Colombe Blanchet
, which remained unfinished. In 'August
1914, he joined the army as a lieutenant
of the reserve, and went to the front with 288 º
Infantry Regiment of
. He was reported missing in battle
Les Éparges near
Verdun (Meuse
), the September 22
1914, in the first
battles of World War . The body remained unidentified until
1991, when it was found in a mass grave in Germany to a few hundred meters from
Tranchée de Calonne, Verdun and the road that joins
Hattonchâtel . Alain-Fournier rests today in the military cemetery
Saint-Remy-la-Calonne .
