Achille-Claude Clarac
Achille Claude Clarac, also known as Claude Clarac (31 August 1903 - 11 January 1999) was a French diplomat and writer.
Early life and education
[edit]Achille Claude Clarac was born on 31 August 1903 in Nantes, France.[1] He studied law and entered the foreign service in 1930.
Career
[edit]In 1934 he became embassy secretary in Tehran, where he married, in May 1935, the Swiss writer and photojournalist Annemarie Schwarzenbach (1908-1942). He was Consul of France in Tehran until 1942.[1]
He was made "Chevalier" de la Legion d'Honneur in 1946 and promoted to "Officier" in 1953.[1] From 31 March 1955 to 2 November 1956 he was French ambassador to Syria in Damascus. From 1959 to 1968 he was French ambassador in Thailand in Bangkok.[1]
Personal life
[edit]According to Schwarzenbach's biographers, Clarac was gay and theirs was a marriage of convenience for both of them; to Schwarzenbach, who was lesbian, obtaining a French diplomatic passport enabled her to travel without restrictions. They were friends and when Schwarzenbach sustained a serious head injury and was dying, Clarac rushed from Tehran to her deathbed in Engadin, but Schwarzenbach's mother, Renée Schwarzenbach-Wille, forbade everyone to see her daughter.
Clarac adopted one son, Henri Pageau-Clarac.[2][3]
Claude Clarac died on 11 January 1999.
Works
[edit]In 1971, with Michael Smithies, he wrote Discovering Thailand, published with Siam Publications.[2] In 1973, under the pen-name of Saint Ours he wrote the gay collection of 7 stories, Un ange à Sodome (An Angel in Sodom), with the publisher Guy Authier.[4]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d Walter Fähnders, Annemarie Schwarzenbach: Annemarie Schwarzenbach - analyzes and first editions; with a Schwarzenbach bibliography, Aisthesis, 2005, p. 275
- ^ a b "OBITUARY" (PDF). siamese-heritage.org. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
- ^ Leybold-Johnson, Isobel. "Swiss writer's life was stranger than fiction". SWI swissinfo.ch. Retrieved 2017-06-22.
- ^ "UN ANGE À SODOME de Claude Achille Clarac, alias Saint Ours". EO ÉrosOnyx Éditions. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
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