Biography
Marcel Aymé (29 March 1902 – 14 October 1967) was a French novelist and playwright, also known for writing screenplays and children's literature.
Born Marcel André Aymé in Joigny, Burgundy, he was the youngest of six siblings. His father, Joseph, was a blacksmith, and his mother, Emma Monamy, passed away when he was two, shortly after the family relocated to Tours. Marcel was sent to live with his maternal grandparents in Villers-Robert, where he spent eight years. This village inspired the fictional Claquebue in his well-known novel La Jument verte. He started primary school in 1906. Because his grandfather was a committed anti-clerical republican, Marcel faced social exclusion from classmates whose families held traditional beliefs. He was baptized only at age eight, nearly two years after his grandfather's death in 1908. After being orphaned again when his grandmother died two years later, he lived briefly with relatives before moving to Dole in the Franche-Comté region to stay with an aunt and attend Collège de l'Arc. There, he excelled more in mathematics than literature, and his school years were an unpleasant period he did not recall fondly.
Despite childhood health problems, Aymé completed his military service beginning in 1919 with an artillery unit stationed in the occupied Rhineland. In 1923, he relocated to Paris and worked unsuccessfully at a bank, an insurance firm, and as a journalist. Though his reporting career faltered, his time at the newspaper helped him discover a passion for writing.
His first novel, Brûlebois, was published in 1926, and in 1929 his work La Table aux crevés earned the Prix Renaudot. Following the major success of La Jument verte (1933), translated as The Green Mare, he focused on writing children's stories, novels, and story collections. From 1935, he also began writing film scripts. In theater, Aymé achieved acclaim with plays such as Lucienne et le boucher, the farce Clérambard (1949), and Tête des autres (1952), which critiqued the death penalty.
He passed away in 1967 and was interred at Cimetière Saint-Vincent in Paris's Montmartre district.
Among his most famous short stories is Le passe-muraille ("The Walker-Through-Walls"). At 42, Dutilleul discovers he can effortlessly pass through walls. What starts as a delightful novelty soon leads him into darker actions.
Visitors to Paris can find a monument honoring Aymé at Place Marcel-Aymé in Montmartre. The statue is inspired by his story "Le passe-muraille" ("The Walker-Through-Walls").
