Roger Vercel (8 January 1894 Le Mans

Le Mans

Le Mans is a city in France, located on the Sarthe River. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Mans. Le Mans is a part of the Pays de la Loire region.Its inhabitants are called Manceaux...

 – 26 February 1957 Dinan

Dinan

Dinan is a walled Breton town and a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department in northwestern France.-Geography:Its geographical setting is exceptional. Instead of nestling on the valley floor like Morlaix, most urban development has been on the hillside, overlooking the river Rance...

) was a French writer.

Biography

He was fascinated by the sea and marine life (and although it has virtually never been to sea itself, most of his novels place in a maritime setting).

The World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 interrupted his studies of letters. Early in the war because of his poor eyesight, he was a stretcher-bearer on the battlefields of northern and eastern France. Because of the lack of army officers, he was prompted to return to Saint-Cyr

École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr

The École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr is the foremost French military academy. Its official name is . It is often referred to as Saint-Cyr . Its motto is "Ils s'instruisent pour vaincre": literally "They study to vanquish" or "Training for victory"...

. He ended the war on the eastern front, and was discharged a year after the Armistice.

He then rejoined Dinan, where he was appointed in 1921, professor at the College of Letters. He supported a doctorate in letters in 1927, with a thesis whose subject is: "The images in the work of Corneille". The Académie française awards it the Saintour prize of literary history. Dinan extinguished it in 1957.

His war memories inspire some of his earlier books: Our Father Trajan, Captain Conan, Lena, but the maritime world is at the heart of his work. Off Eden earned him the Prix Femina

Prix Femina

The Prix Femina is a French literary prize created in 1904 by 22 writers for the magazine La Vie heureuse . The prize is decided each year by an exclusively female jury, although the authors of the winning works do not have to be women...

 from the France-America Committee in 1932. He won the Prix Goncourt

Prix Goncourt

The Prix Goncourt is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year"...

 in 1934 for Capitaine Conan.

Several of his works were brought to the screen:

• Trailers, 1941 (dir. Jean Gremillion, with Jean Gabin, Michèle Morgan, Madeleine Renaud, Fernand Ledoux)
• Duguesclin, 1949 (dir. Bernard de Latour, with Gisele Casadesus, Louis de Funès Gérard Oury)
• The murky waters, 1949 (dir. Henri Calef, with Jean Vilar, Ginette Leclerc, André Valmy, Mouloudji) is based on the new blades Deaf.
• The great bulwarks, 1954 (dir. Jacques Pinoteau Courcel Nicole Marie Mansard, Jean-Pierre Mocky)
• Capitaine Conan, 1996 (dir. Bertrand Tavernier, Philippe Torreton, Samuel Le Bihan, Bernard Le Coq)

Sources

• Simone Vercel, "Roger Vercel, my father." in L'Humanite, September 19, 1996.
• Erwann Letilleul Roger Vercel, maritime writer, Chasse-tidal No. 142, p. 24-35, April 2001.
• Jacques Georgel, "Roger Vercel" biography. Apogee Publishing, 2006, 189 p.

Studies

• Les images dans l'œuvre de Corneille, thèse pour le doctorat ès-lettres, A. Olivier, 1927.
• Lexique comparé des métaphores dans le théâtre de Corneille et de Racine, thèse complémentaire pour le doctorat ès-lettres, A. Olivier, 1927.
• Un programme d'éducation générale in Disciplines d'action, Vichy, Paris, Commissariat général à l'éducation générale et aux sports, 1942.

Novels

• Notre père Trajan, Albin Michel, 1930.
• En Dérive, Albin Michel, 1931.
• Au Large de l'Eden, Albin Michel, 1932.
• Le maître du rêve, Albin Michel, 1933.
• Capitaine Conan
  Capitaine Conan
  Capitaine Conan is a 1996 French film that is directed by Bertrand Tavernier. The film is based on the 1934 Prix Goncourt-winning novel Captain Conan by Roger Vercel.-Plot:...
  
  , Albin Michel, 1934.
• Remorques, Albin Michel, 1935. Les Bibliophiles de France, 1957
• Léna, Albin Michel, 1936.
• Sous le pied de l'archange, Albin Michel, 1937.
• Jean Villemeur, Albin Michel, 1939.
• La Hourie, Albin Michel, 1942.
• Aurore boréale, Albin Michel, 1947.
• La caravane de Pâques, Albin Michel, 1948. (illustrations par Frédéric Back)
• La fosse aux vents :
  • I.- Ceux de la Galatée, Albin Michel, 1949.
  • II.- La peau du Diable, Albin Michel, 1950.
  • II.- Atalante, Albin Michel, 1951.
• Visage perdu, Albin Michel, 1953.
• L'Île des revenants, Albin Michel, 1954.
• Été indien, Albin Michel, 1956.

Biographies

• Du Guesclin, Albin Michel, 1932; Éditions Arc-en-ciel, 1944 (illustrations by Frédéric Back); Editions de la Nouvelle France, 1944 (illustration by Jacques Lechantre).
• Le Bienheureux Charles de Blois, Albin Michel, 1942.
• Nos vaillants capitaines, Impr. de Curial-Archereau, 1945.