I have been looking for years for a picture of Germaine Delamain, CM's wonderful French translator. She was the wife of Jacques Delamain, the wine-grower and ornithologist who wrote Why Birds Sing ("Pourquoi les oiseaux chantent") about which CM wrote a lovely essay, and who may have been in part the model for The Voyage's Barbet Hazard. I knew that her maiden name was Boutelleau, that her brother was the novelist Jacques Chardonne (a pen name), and that they came from Barbézieux in the Charente and were close to the Delamains. Now I found a charming book by Marie-Dominique Montel, Une jeunesse charentaise: les photos retrouvées de Jacques Chardonne (Paris: Le Croît Vif, 2007), which has two pictures of her: the first as a little girl on her father's knee, the second with her beloved husband Jacques. Both were taken by her brother-in-law Maurice Delamain, who was a passionate amateur photographer. I have scanned the one of Germaine with Jacques, and another one of Jacques in front of their lovely house, which CM knew; and you will find them on the Gallery: Works pages of this site.
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AuthorRoger Kuin, stumbling webmaster and lifelong admirer of Morgan's writing. Archives
June 2023
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