AN INDIAN IN THE WESTERN LIGHTHOUSE

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SIMENON IN AMERICA (1945- 1955)

From New Brunswick, to Canada, to California, to the USA, while passing by Florida, Louisiana and Arizona, George Simenon spent ten years of his life in America. As of the Thirties, the action of some of its novels ("gangsters of Chicago ", "pirates of Texas", Chinese of San-Francisco ", the eye of Utah") proceeded already in the United States. But, the intrigue was then based on the book connaisssances of the author. It is at the time of its stay in States, between 1945 and 1955, that the Belgian writer will impregnate truly "American Way of life". Until writing several novels having for framework States ("Three rooms in Manhattan ", "Maigret in New York", "funds of the Bottle", Maigret in the coroner ", the death of beautiful"), and even a book completely "western" ("the lost mare"), whose action proceeds in a ranch held by two cow-boys and the sister of one of them, close to Tucson, Arizona. During its American stay, Simenon will continue to write major works having France for framework ("the elder one of Ferchaux ", "Letter with my judge", "holidays of Maigret", "phantoms of the hatter", "shutters green").

Georges Simenon in 1945

 

THE DEPARTURE OF FRANCE

Since August 1944, George Simenon is in Les Sables d'Olonne, in Vendée french department, in order to recover there from a bad pleurisy. But some month later, he is assigned to resid there by the Liberation's authorities. The publication of some of its novels in collaborationnists newspapers and the transfer of his rights, to the German film company "Continental", in order to adapt them to the cinema, would be regarded as acts of "collaboration" with the former occupant. In April 1945, the writer is accused of intelligence with the enemy. After having obtained a visa for Canada and the United States, under pretext of ensure an official mission of edition and cinema, Simenon and its wife pass to England and embark in Southampton to go in America. Twelve days later, they arrive to New York in October 1945. It are accomodated there by one their friends, Justin O' Brien, formerly responsible in France for the American secret service, become again professor of French literature on his return to the USA Far from being discrete, the arrival of Simenon is very mediatised. The writer recalls the journalists that he wrote "American" novels like popular "the Eye of Utah", account of war in the plains of the West.

 

IN NEW-YORK

Installed a few times in Greenwich Village, in his friend O' Brien, Simenon rediscovers the New York which he knew at the time of his journey around the world in 1934-1935. There he becomes acquainted with Denise Ouimet, Canadian, which becomes its secretary and his girl friend. During this time, the wife of Simenon, Tigy, and his son Marc remained in Sainte-Marguerite, in Canada. Of return to the family hearth, the writer asks Denise to come to join it. It is in this place that Simenon writes "Three rooms in Manhattan" and "Maigret in New York". In septembre1946, the Simenon family leaves Saint-Andrews, in the province of New Brunswick, for a tour which will bring it to Miami, in Florida. On behalf of the newspaper "France-Soir", the writer metamorphoses himself as a journalist to tell his voyage in the deep America. The report will be published under the title "America by car". Simenon discovers Cola Coke, hot dogs, ice creams, motels and popcorns. What does not prevent it from having a glance criticizes, by denouncing racism, the rejection of the Indians, the standardized life of American, is a prelude to with the universalization of our spending patterns.

 

AMERICAN FAR-WEST

Fascinated by the vast American extents, Simenon wants to discover other horizons. It furrows Tennessee, Georgia, on board Packard 48, the American dream car at the time. Then, it is Texas, New Mexico and, finally, Arizona. The writer settles in Tucson, where he lives with cow-boys, Indians, Mexicans. We are in 1947, the city counts 100 000 inhabitants. George Simenon settles in a villa, in Franklin Street. He smells himself well in this "Far-West", far from crowd and great urban centres. Its escapades around Tucson, in particular, to Tombstone, the city of the cow-boys, lead it to discover a village phantom cow-boy, actually, the decorations of a film, "Arizona", turned eight years before. Simenon continues to be immersed in the American life: air-conditioned, swimming pools, cinemas, drive-in, etc... Between two writing seance, it overlaps, in company of his son Marc, in these plains and these dusty tracks which border the surroundings of Tucson. Images which will inspire it for his "western"novel , "the lost mare". "It is not a novel to which I attach importance. It is a kind of exercise to familiarize me with the American landscapes and characters ", he writes to french writer André Gide, in 1948.

Simenon at the "El Conquistador" corral , near Tucson

 

HOLLYWOOD DREAM

Whereas he writes "Maigret and the coroner", a new adventure in the USA of its police chief fetish, George Simenon learns that the French Committee of purification of the men of letters condemned not to publish books during two years more. Hard blow for the writer who settles, in November 1949, in Carmel, in California where his wife, Tigy and her Marc son wait. There will remain a year there. As of its arrival in America, Simenon had announced its intention to see its novels adapted to the cinema. With the occasion of a stay in Hollywood, it rents the rights of adaptation to the screen of "the head of a man", become "The Man of the Eiffel Tower", with Charles Laughton (the malicious captain of "Revolted of Bounty") in the role of the Maigret police chief. Others of its novels will be adapted by the American cinema: "Temptation Harbour" (according to "the man of London") 1948, " Midnight Episode "(according to Mr. the Mouse) 1950, "The man who watched trains go by " (according to "the man which looked at passing the trains") 1953, "A life in the balances" (according to "7 small crosses in a notebook") 1955, "The bottom of the bottle " (according to the "The bottom of the bottle ") 1956, "The Rico brothers " (according to the "Rico brothers") 1958.

 

IN CONNECTICUT

But, the cinematograhic adaptations of his novels does not satisfy Simenon. This experiment of collaboration with Hollywood cinematographic industry leaves him a bitter taste. Speaking about Hollywood, he writes in his "Memory intimate": "It is the most artificial city of the world, where each one has only the value of the seals which it touches and where it must carry out, this was counters its taste, the life corresponding to this seal." In 1950, George Simenon divorces Tigy, marries Denise Ouimet and settles in Lakeville, in Connecticut, between Boston and New York. He moves in in a white house, with the multiple inhabited wings which make think of the ramifications of a tree. It is "Shadow Rock Farm", a XVIIIth century old masonry, with the name coming from an Indian legend. Although completely immersed in American way of Life, Simenon written, in this place, of the novels one cannot french any more. What does not prevent him from seeing about thirty its books translated in the United States. Four "Maigret" are even adapted and diffused on American television. At 52, Simenon feels that he arrives at the end of a cycle. Nobody don't really knows why, in March 1955, he leaves the United States abruptly. For his children, John and Marie-Jo, born in the USA, it is a true break. Simenon leaves America without being turned over.

Information and photographs extracted from "On the American roads with Simenon" - Michel Carly - Bus Editions (2002), "Simenon" - Pierre Assouline - Gallimard Editions Folio (1996), "Simenon, a biography" - Stanley Eskin - Press of the City (1990) and "On the traces of Simenon" - Magazine Littéraire n° 417 (February 2003).

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