Roland Dorgeles

Roland Dorgelès (1885 - 1973) was a French novelist and a member of the Académie Goncourt. Born in Amiens, Somme, under the name Roland Lecavelé (he adopted the pen name Dorgelès to commemorate visits to the spa town of Argelès), he spent his childhood in Paris. A prolific author, he is most renowned for the Prix Femina-winning Wooden crosses ("Les croix de bois"), a moving study of World War I, in which he served. It was published in 1919 (in English by William Heinemann in 1920). Dorgelès...See more

Roland Dorgelès (1885 - 1973) was a French novelist and a member of the Académie Goncourt. Born in Amiens, Somme, under the name Roland Lecavelé (he adopted the pen name Dorgelès to commemorate visits to the spa town of Argelès), he spent his childhood in Paris. A prolific author, he is most renowned for the Prix Femina-winning Wooden crosses ("Les croix de bois"), a moving study of World War I, in which he served. It was published in 1919 (in English by William Heinemann in 1920). Dorgelès served as a juror with Florence Meyer Blumenthal in awarding the Prix Blumenthal, a grant given between 1919 and 1954 to painters, sculptors, decorators, engravers, writers and musicians. See less