Paul Guimard

Paul Guimard (3 March 1921 – 2 May 2004) was a French writer known for combining his passion for writing with his love of the sea. His most famous work was Les Choses de la Vie, which was adapted for film, with a complete change of its ending, by Claude Sautet, with Romy Schneider and Michel Piccoli.

Guimard was born at Saint-Mars-la-Jaille (Loire-Atlantique). He married Benoîte Groult. Following a poor performance at the private Saint-Stanislas school of Nantes, he began a career as a journalist. During World War II he reported for the provincial paper L'Echo de la Loire and later had a job as a news editor for another regional daily, L'Ouest-Eclair. He covered French broadcasting in the op-ed pages of Tribune de Paris for four years.

In 1945 he wrote a comedy, Seventh Sky, which played briefly. His literary career began in 1956 with the successful, award-winning novel False Friends. His next award winner, Rue du Havre, followed a year later.

In 1960 Guimard wrote the comedy A Best Man with his friend Antoine Blondin in Paris. One year later, he published The Irony of Fate which, like Rue du Havre, explores the role of chance in human relationships. The book was the basis for a film by Edouard Molinaro.

Guimard was in charge of a mission for the French President François Mitterrand from Mitterrand's election in 1981 until August 1982. "My only regret is not to have obtained at the time of my passage to the Elysium the creation of an academy of the Sea", Guimard said, aff…