Guy Augustin Marie Jean de la Pérusse des Cars (6 May 1911 – 21 December 1993) was a best-selling French author of popular novels.
Personal life
Born in Paris on 6 May 1911, des Cars was from an aristocratic family. He was the second son of François de la Péruse, Duke of Cars (1875–1941) and Marie Thérésa Edwards (1879–1941). Cars' father was a young military attache in London when at a Victorian debutante ball he met his future wife, the daughter of Agustín Edwards Ross President of the Senate of Chile. Cars would later be inspired by his mother in his work.
He went to school at Jesuits at Evroux. After school, his mother paid for him to become a priest. At 19, he visited his mother's family in Chile. On board ship on his way back to France, he wrote a bright little comedy, Croisiere pour dames seules ('Cruise for Unattached Ladies') which ran for a hundred performances, much to the horror of his family. They cut off his allowance, and des Cars began his career in journalism.
It's possible he married more than once. On 12 May 1947, he married the lyric artist, Marthe Claquin.
He is the father of Jean des Cars, French journalist.
Career des Cars started his writing career before World War II as a journalist, and wrote many different kinds of articles, from fashion to foreign policy. He showed a keen interest in the circus and variety arts, which led him to become a street entertainer, eventually touring with the Cirque Pinder, with which he travelled all over Europe. Life in the circus was to provide the background for his second novel, La Dame du Cirque (1943). In the 1930s, he worked as Press Agent for the giant German Circus Gleich.
des Cars served in World War II and returned with the Croix de Guerre, and the manuscript of his first novel. After that, he published 60 popular novels, including many best-sellers with salacious covers, within the trend of pulp fiction in America. He was condemned by the intelligentsia as a 'railway bookstall novelist' – earning him the nickname of 'Guy des Gares'. He didn't care: 'Being a popular novelist is no problem for me – but being an unpopular one would be.'
He was translated into 21 languages and his work covered many taboo topics. In 1954, he released La Maudite, to be reprinted in America as The Damned One. This particular novel detailed a lesbian relationship, situating it into the canon of lesbian pulp fiction. It received a Grier Rating of A*, and was rated 'objectionable' by the National Organization for Decent Literature.
Literary works
1946 – L'impure (1946) 1947 – Les sept femmes (Seven Women) 1948 – La demoiselle d'opéra 1951 – La brute (a TV show was based on this novel; as well as the 1954 British film The Green Scarf) 1953 – L'amour s'en va en guerre 1954 – La maudite (The Damned One) 1955 – L'officier sans nom 1956 – Amour de ma vie 1956 – La cathédrale de haine 1957 – La tricheuse (a TV show was based on this novel) 1958 – Le château de la juive 1959 – Les filles de joie 1960 – Cette étrange tendresse 1961 – Le grand Monde 1962 – La dame du cirque 1963 – Sang d'Afrique 1964 – Les sept femmes 1965 – De cape et de plume 1966 – L'habitude d'amour 1967 – Le faussaire 1968 – La révoltée 1969 – La vipère 1970 – L'entremetteuse 1971 – Une certaine dame 1972 – L'insolence de sa beauté 1973 – La vie secrète de Dorothée Gindt 1973 – Le donneur 1974 – J'ose, récit autobiographique 1975 – L'envouteuse 1974 – Le mage et la boule de cristal 1976 – Le mage et les lignes de la main 1977 – Le chateau du clown 1977 – Le mage et la bonne aventure 1978 – Le mage et la graphologie 1979 – La femme qui en savait trop 1979 – Les Reines de cœur de Roumanie 1981 – La femme sans frontière 1983 – Le crime de Mathilde 1984 – Le faiseur de morts 1984 – La voleuse 1985 – Je t'aimerai éternellement 1990 – La femme d'argent
Others books published with unknown dates:
La coupable – Guilty La femme objet La justicière La mère porteuse La vengeresse La visiteuse Le boulevard des illusions – Illusions boulevard Le mage et le pendule – This book is part of a serie – after Le mage et la boule de cristal, written in 1974 et before Mage et les lignes de la main, written in 1976. Le train du Père Noël – Santa Claus' Train L'homme au double visage – Double face Man – (a TV show was based on this novel)
External links Video- Guy des Cars in 1968, he spoke about his life and his career on Swiss Television. List of des Cars' books in pocket size IMDb's list of novels that became TV shows
References