Georges Simenon

Georges Joseph Christian Simenon 13 February 1903 4 September 1989 was a Belgian writer A prolific author who published nearly 500 novels and numerous short works Simenon is best known as the creator of the fictional detective Jules Maigret Simenon was born at 26 rue Léopold now number 24 in Liège to Désiré Simenon and his wife Henriette Brüll Désiré Simenon worked in an accounting office at an insurance company and had married Henriette in April 1902 Although Simenon was born on Friday 13 February 1903 superstition resulted in his birth being registered as having been on the 12th This story of his birth is recounted at the beginning of his novel Pedigree The Simenon family traces its origins back to Belgian Limburg Simenon could trace his line back to peasants living in the area since as early as 1580 His mother had origins from Limburg the Netherlands and Germany while his father was of Walloon origin One of his mothers most notorious ancestors was Gabriel Brühl a criminal who preyed on Limburg from the 1720s until he was hanged in 1743 Later Simenon would use Brühl as one of his many pen names In April 1905 two years after Simenons birth the family moved to 3 rue Pasteur now 25 rue Georges Simenon in Lièges Outremeuse neighbourhood Simenons brother Christian was born in September 1906 and eventually became their mothers favourite child much to Simenons chagrin Later in February 1911 the Simenons moved to 53 rue de la Loi also in the Outremeuse In this larger home the Simenons were able to take in lodgers Typical among them were apprentices and students of various nationalities giving the young Simenon an important introduction to the wider world this marked his novels notably Pedigree and Le Locataire At the age of three Simenon learned to read at the SaintJulienne nursery school Then between 1908 and 1914 he attended the Institut SaintAndré In September 1914 shortly after the beginning of the First World War he began his studies at the Collège SaintLouis a Jesuit high school In February 1917 the Simenon family moved to a former post office building in the Amercoeur neighbourhood June 1919 saw another move this time to the rue de lEnseignement again back in the Outremeuse neighbourhood Using his fathers heart condition as a pretext Simenon decided to put an end to his studies in June 1918 not even taking the Collège SaintLouis yearend exams He subsequently worked a number of very shortterm odd jobs In January 1919 the 15yearold Simenon took a job at the Gazette de Liège a newspaper edited by Joseph Demarteau While Simenons own beat only covered unimportant human interest stories it afforded him an opportunity to explore the seamier side of the city including politics bars and cheap hotels but also crime police investigations and lectures on police technique by the criminologist Edmond Locard Simenons experience at the Gazette also taught him the art of quick editing He wrote more than 150 articles under the pen name G Sim He began submitting stories to Le Matin in the early 1920s Source Article Georges Simenon from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30