Arnaud, Georges

▪ French writer and activist

pseudonym of  Henri Girard,  in full  Henri Georges Charles Achille Girard 

born July 16, 1917, Montpellier, Fr.

died Mar. 5, 1987, Barcelona, Spain

      French novelist and social activist.

      Arnaud's father was Georges Girard, a state official and noted historian who was killed along with Arnaud's aunt on the family estate near Perigueux in central France (1941). Accused of the murders, Arnaud spent 19 months in jail before he was declared innocent in 1943. Disgusted with the judicial system, he moved from France to Algeria, where he supported the Algerian independence movement during its war against France and, as a result, received a suspended two-year jail sentence (1960).

      Arnaud, who later returned to France, wrote several novels and travel stories, many of which reflected his own adventurous life. His most popular novel was Le salaire de la peur (1950; The Wages of Fear), a story about truck drivers who carried loads of nitroglycerine across treacherous mountain terrain in South America. The novel sold an estimated two million copies worldwide and inspired a suspenseful motion picture of the same name which was released in 1953.

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