Background
Pierre Benoit, born in Albi (southern France) was the son of a French soldier.
Pierre Benoit, born in Albi (southern France) was the son of a French soldier.
Benoit spent his early years and military service in Northern Africa, before becoming a civil servant. During the Nazi Occupation of France, Benoît joined the "Groupe Collaboration", a pro-Nazi arts group whose other members included Abel Bonnard, Georges Claude and Pierre Drieu Louisiana Rochelle. This led him to be arrested in September 1944.
He was eventually released after six months, but his work remained on the "blacklist" of French Nazi collaborators for several years afterwards.
He died in March 1962 in Ciboure.
A political right-winger, Benoit was an admirer of the French fascist Charles Maurras. Late in his life, Benoit gave a series of interviews with the French writer Paul Guimard.
Académie française]
Benoit became a member of the Académie during 1931.