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André Malraux

French novelist, art theorist, and statesman (1901–1976)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 4, 2026
Entity authorityQ151164
Source-derived summary

Georges André Malraux ( mal-ROH; French: [ʒɔʁʒ ɑ̃dʁe malʁo] ; 3 November 1901 – 23 November 1976) was a French novelist, member of the French Resistance, art theorist, and minister of cultural affairs. Malraux's 1933 novel La Condition Humaine (Man's Fate) is set during the 1927 Shanghai uprising and won the Prix Goncourt; L'Espoir (Man's Hope, 1937) arose from his experiences during the Spanish Civil War. After the Second World War he abandoned fiction and wrote several works on art history, collected as La Psychologie de l'Art (The Voices of Silence, 1953). He was appointed by Charles de Gaulle as information minister (1945–46) and subsequently as France's first cultural affairs minister during de Gaulle's presidency (1959–1969).

Early life

Malraux was born in Paris in 1901, the son of Fernand-Georges Malraux (1875–1930) and Berthe Félicie Lamy (1877–1932). His parents separated in 1905 and eventually divorced. There are suggestions that Malraux's paternal grandfather committed suicide in 1909.

Malraux was raised by his mother, his maternal aunt Marie Lamy and his maternal grandmother, Adrienne Lamy (née Romagna), who had a grocery store in the small town of Bondy (Seine-Saint-Denis). His father, a stockbroker, died by suicide in 1930 after the international crash of the stock market and onset of the Great Depression.

From his childhood, André had marked nervousness and motor and vocal tics.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “André Malraux” as french novelist, art theorist, and statesman (1901–1976). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around André, Malraux and French.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1901, 1976, 1933, 1927—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1901-11-03. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with André, Malraux and French providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “André Malraux”, the useful work is to connect “french novelist, art theorist, and statesman (1901–1976)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q151164. VIAF identifies the subject as 51692748. The Library of Congress control number is n79059794. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1901, 1976, 1933 and 1927.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from André Malraux” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.