Henri Troyat

Russian-born writer, the prolific and award-winning author of over 100 works, including biographies, novels and plays.

Troyat's family fled Russia during the Russian revolution of 1917 and,after stops in Istanbul and Italy, settled in 1920 in Paris. He initially studied law but won acclaim after his first novel was released. "Faux Jour" (False Light) was published just after he completed his military service. At age 27 he published his fifth novel "L'Araigne" (The Spider), and it won the Goncourt. Troyat never returned to his mother country though many of his novels are set in Russian and he wrote biographies of many famous Russian figures, including Catherine the Great, Tolstoy and Pushkin. He didn't ignore his adopted country, France, and wrote biographies of French writers like Zola and Balzac. Described as a natural born story-teller, he wrote every day, standing up at a pedestal, reportedly wearing a hole in his carpet.

He was inducted into the Academie Francaise in 1959; in addition to that honor and the Goncourt, he was also awarded the Grand-Croix of the French Legion of Honor. With over 100 works to his credit, he was still writing at age 94, when his last novel, "La Traque" (The Hunt was published. For him a day without writing was unthinkable.

Troyat died on March 2, 2007 in Paris at age 95.