4x3 B&W thin stock vintage book photo signed in blue fountain pen ink by André Maurois. Excellent condition.(1885-1967) André Maurois was a French author.Maurois was born on 26 July 1885 in Elbeuf and educated at the Lycée Pierre Corneille in Rouen, both in Normandy. A member of the Javal family, Maurois was the son of Ernest Herzog, a Jewish textile manufacturer, and his wife Alice Lévy-Rueff. His family had fled Alsace after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71 and took refuge in Elbeuf, where they owned a woolen mill. As noted by Maurois, the family brought their entire Alsatian workforce with them to the relocated mill, for which Maurois' grandfather was admitted to the Legion of Honour for having "saved a French industry". This family background is reflected in Maurois' Bernard Quesnay - the story of a young World War I veteran with artistic and intellectual inclinations who is drawn, much against his will, to work as a director in his grandfather's textile mills - a character clearly having many autobiographical elements.During World War I he joined the French army and served as an interpreter for Lieutenant Colonel Winston Churchill (according to Martin Gilbert in Churchill and the Jews, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2007) and later a liaison officer with the British army. His first novel, Les silences du colonel Bramble, was a witty and socially realistic account of that experience. It was an immediate success in France. It was translated and became popular in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries as The Silence of Colonel Bramble. Many of his other works have also been translated into English, as they often dealt with British people or topics, such as his biographies of Disraeli, Byron, and Shelley.In 1938 Maurois was elected to the prestigious Académie française. He was encouraged and assisted in seeking this post by Marshal Philippe Pétain, and he made a point of acknowledging with thanks his debt to Pétain in his 1941 autobiography, Call No Man Happy – though by the time of writing their paths had sharply diverged, Pétain having become Head of State of Vichy France.When World War II began, he was appointed the French Official Observer attached to the British General Headquarters. In this capacity, he accompanied the British Army to Belgium. He knew personally the main politicians in the French Government, and on 10 June 1940, he was sent on a mission to London. After the Armistice ended that mission, Maurois was demobilized and traveled from England to Canada. He wrote of these experiences in his book, Tragedy in France.This lot came from the Jim Wiggins collection we purchased in July 2022. Jim Wiggins accumulated the most unique and valuable autograph collection over a period of 70-plus years. He obtained his collection either in person or by writing to persons of fame and notoriety. Comes with a full Letter of Authenticity from Todd Mueller Authentics.