Belgian · 1903–1989
Belgian novelist who wrote over 400 books—seventy-five featuring Inspector Maigret. Born in Liège, he began as a journalist, wrote pulp fiction under pseudonyms, then created Maigret in 1931. The detective solves crimes through atmosphere and psychology rather than clues. Simenon also wrote "hard novels" of psychological intensity—The Man Who Watched Trains Go By, Dirty Snow—earning praise from Gide and praise mixed with suspicion from others. He lived across Europe and America, wrote with legendary speed, and claimed (dubiously) to have slept with ten thousand women. The output is uneven; the best is essential.