Marguerite Duras(1914-1996)
- Writer
- Director
- Actress
Ms. Duras was born in southern Vietnam and lost her father at age 4.
The family savings of 20 years bought the family a small plot in
Cambodia, but everything was lost in a single season's flooding. The
disaster killed her mother as a result. After high school in Saigon,
Ms. Duras left Indochina to study law in Paris. As a young woman, she
worked as a secretary in France's Ministry of Colonies from 1935 to
1941, before becoming a writer. She wrote 34 novels from 1943 to 1993,
and became an enduring part of Paris's intellectual elite. In addition
to her writing, she also directed about 16 films. For the film India
Song (1975), she won France's Cinema Academy Grand Prix. She claimed to
have rescued French president François Mitterand during World War II,
when he was a resistance fighter and remained a friend and
unconditional campaigner. Her most noted novel is "L'Amant", the story
of a girl, from a poor French family in Indochina, who becomes the
mistress of a wealthy Indochinese notable's son.
