Henri de Monfreid

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Henri de Monfreid

Henry or Henri de Monfreid (born November 14, 1879 in Leucate , France , † December 13, 1974 ) was a French writer and adventurer. He is the son of the French art collector George-Daniel de Monfreid , whose close friend Paul Gauguin was.

Life

At first Monfreid worked as a food chemist for Maggi and took on other smaller auxiliary jobs. He lived with Lucie, the mother of his son Marcel, until he separated from her in 1905. In 1906 Monfreid traveled to Africa for the first time. In 1913 he married his long-time friend Armgart Freudenfeld, b. 1887 in Metz . With her, an Alsatian who had German citizenship, he was to have three children who grew up in Obock .

A year later he was arrested in Djibouti for arms trafficking , but was soon released. He was spared military service because he was to be used as a spy against Turkey; another arrest for arms and drug trafficking probably thwarted this.

At the instigation of his friend Joseph Kessel , who wrote his novel Fortune Carrée about Monfreid in 1932 , de Monfreid published Les secrets de la Mer Rouge in 1931 , the great success of which led to 74 other books. Monfreid took the place of a great adventurer of the 20th century in France and is a widely read author to this day. Most of his novels and stories, which are largely autobiographically inspired, take place in the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea .

The eldest daughter of him and his wife Armgart, Gisèle de Monfreid (1914–1999), published a highly regarded book about her youth in Africa when she was over 60.

Movie

Henri de Monfreid's life story was filmed as a television series in 1968.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.amazon.com/Mes-secrets-Rouge-Gisèle-Monfreid/dp/2211095712 , accessed on July 13, 2020
  2. ↑ Description of the television series
personal data
SURNAME Monfreid, Henri de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Monfreid, Henry de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French writer and adventurer
DATE OF BIRTH November 14, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Leucate , France
DATE OF DEATH December 13, 1974