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69-465: Floreana, sometimes written as Floriana, is named in honor of Juan José Flores , the first president of Ecuador . It was during Flores's presidency that Ecuador took possession of the archipelago. The island was previously known in Spanish as Mercedes Island ( Isla Mercedes ), sometimes corrupted to Mascarenas , in honor of Flores's wife Mercedes Jijón . It was also known as Santa Maria , after

138-594: A Navy-manned research vessel assigned to the United States Fish Commission visited Floreana Island during a 2-week survey of the islands. In 1929, Friedrich Ritter and Dore Strauch arrived in Guayaquil from Berlin to settle on Floreana and sent letters back that were widely reported in the press, encouraging others to follow. In 1932, Heinz and Margret Wittmer arrived with their son Harry from Germany, and shortly afterwards their son Rolf

207-554: A Spanish military school and hospital. Since the poor yet sagacious Juan José Flores did not know what to do with his life at age 15, he enlisted as a private in the Spanish Royalist army of Spanish General Pablo Morillo , whose job it was to fight and destroy the patriot armies that were fighting for Spanish American independence in South America. During a short period of time Juan José Flores distinguished himself in

276-450: A cabin boy on the Essex , returned to Charles Island and found a black wasteland: "neither trees, shrubbery, nor grass have since appeared." It is believed the fire contributed to the extinction of some species originally on the island. In September 1835 the second voyage of HMS Beagle brought Charles Darwin to Charles Island. The ship's crew was greeted by Nicholas Lawson , acting for

345-588: A contract with the prestigious publisher Gallimard for his new work. Maigret , written in June 1933, was intended to be the last of the series and ended with the detective in retirement. Simenon called the Maigret novels "semi-literary" and he wanted to establish himself as a serious writer. He stated his aim was to win the Nobel Prize for Literature by 1947. Simenon's notable novels of the 1930s, written after

414-440: A dense vegetation among the rocks. Medium tree finches are endemic to the island. Other significant species include lava gulls and Galapagos penguins . When Charles Darwin visited the island in 1835, he found no sign of its native tortoise and assumed that whalers, pirates, and human settlers had wiped them out. Since about 1850, no tortoises have been found on the island (except for one or two introduced animals kept as pets by

483-463: A divorce. Denyse gave birth to Jean Dennis Chrétien Simenon (known as John) on 29 September. Régine had moved to California with Marc and Boule, and Simenon, Denyse and the baby soon moved to Carmel-by-the-Sea where they would be close to Marc. The divorce was granted in Nevada on 21 June 1950. Simenon married Denyse the following day. The newly-weds moved to Lakeville, Connecticut and also rented

552-486: A former post office building in the rue des Maraîchers. Using his father's heart condition as a pretext, Simenon quit school in June 1918, without taking his end-of-year exams. After brief periods working in a patisserie and a bookshop, Simenon found himself unemployed when the war ended in November 1918. He witnessed scenes of violent retribution against residents of Liège accused of collaboration which stayed with him for

621-680: A great novelist, perhaps the greatest, and the most genuine novelist that we have had in contemporary French literature.” Born and raised in Liège , Belgium, Simenon lived for extended periods in France (1922–1945), the United States (1946–1955) and finally Switzerland (1957–1989). Much of his work is semi-autobiographical, inspired by his childhood and youth in Liège, extensive travels in Europe and

690-487: A novel by Gallimard in 1938. Simenon´s novel was adapted for television in 1989, by Laurent Heynemann. A documentary film recounting these events, The Galapagos Affair , was released in 2013. A fictionalized film by director Ron Howard starring Jude Law , Sydney Sweeney , and Ana de Armas premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2024. Asilo de la Paz , located in the highlands of Floreana Island,

759-602: A series of articles highly critical of colonialism. He drew on his African experience in novels such as Le Coup de Lune ( Tropic Moon ) (1933) and 45 à l'ombre ( Aboard the Aquitaine ) (1936). In 1933, the Simenons visited Germany and Eastern Europe, and Simenon secured an interview with Leon Trotsky in exile in Turkey for Paris-Soir . On his return, he announced that he would write no more Maigret novels, and signed

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828-577: A total of 17 pen names while writing 358 novels and short stories. In the summer of 1925, the Simenons took a holiday in Normandy where they met Henriette Liberge, the 18-year-old daughter of a fisherman. Régine offered her a job as their housekeeper in Paris and the young woman accepted. Simenon began calling her "Boule", and she was to become his lover and part of the Simenon household under that name for

897-488: A young painter, Régine Renchon, and in early 1921 they began a relationship. They soon became engaged and agreed that Simenon should complete his year of compulsory military service before they married. Simenon's father died In November 1921, an event which Simenon called, "the most important day in a man's life." Soon after, he began his military service. After a brief posting with the allied occupation forces in Germany, he

966-578: Is a shield volcano , which has erupted alkaline basalts since 1.5 Ma . It is the southernmost island in the Galapagos Archipelago , and a 3,400 m submarine escarpment 10 km south of the island forms the southern boundary of the Galapagos Platform. There are over 50 scoria cones onshore and 6 tuff cones offshore. Mostly composed of tephra , these cones are the origin of the A'a lava flows. The oldest flows are on

1035-534: The Gazette . In September he completed his first novel, Au Pont des Arches which he self-published in 1921. He wrote two other novels while working at the Gazette , but these were never published. In June 1919, Simenon had been introduced into a group of young artists and bohemians which called itself " Le Caque " (herring barrel). The group met at night to drink, discuss art and philosophy, and experiment with drugs such as morphine and cocaine. In early 1922 one of

1104-705: The Virgin Mary and the Santa María , one of Christopher Columbus 's ships during his initial voyage . Pinta Island similarly remembers another one of his ships. The English pirate William Ambrosia Cowley did not apparently chart or name this island in his 17th-century accounts of the Galápagos but the British captain James Colnett misunderstood some of Cowley's maps and in 1793 gave Floreana

1173-523: The Americas, the Galapagos Islands, Tahiti, Australia and India. They then moved back to Paris, in the fashionable Neuilly district, where they lived a life of luxury which Simenon later described as "too sumptuous". They moved home to La Rochelle in 1938 because, as Simenon later explained, "I was sickened by the life I was leading." In April the following year, Simenon's first child, Marc,

1242-528: The Collège Saint-Louis, a Jesuit high school. After a year, he switched to Collège St Servais, where he studied for three years. He excelled at French, but his marks in other subjects declined. He read widely in the Russian, French and English classics, frequently played truant, and turned to petty theft in order to buy pastries and other war time luxuries. In 1917, the Simenon family moved to

1311-759: The Ecole Guardienne run by the Sisters of Notre Dame. Then, between 1908 and 1914, he attended the Institut Saint-André, run by the Christian Brothers. In 1911, the Simenons moved to 53 rue de la Loi, where they took in lodgers, many of them students from Eastern Europe, Jews and political refugees. This gave the young Simenon an introduction to the wider world, which was later reflected his novels, notably Pedigree (published 1948) and Le Locataire ( The Lodger ) (1938). Following

1380-626: The French Commissariat-Géneral aux Questions Juives notified Simenon that they suspected him of being Jewish and gave him one month to prove he wasn't. Simenon was able to obtain the necessary certificates of birth and baptism through his mother, and soon after the Simenons moved to a more remote village in the Vendée. In 1944, Régine discovered Simenon's long-term affair with Boule, and Simenon also confessed to his numerous other affairs. The couple agreed to remain married for

1449-546: The Governor of Galápagos, and at the prison colony Darwin was told that tortoises differed in the shape of the shells from island to island, but this was not obvious on the islands he visited and he did not bother collecting their shells. He industriously collected all the animals and plants, and speculated about finding "from future comparison to what district or 'centre of creation' the organized beings of this archipelago must be attached." On 8 April 1888 USS  Albatross ,

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1518-615: The Interior on suspicion of collaboration. After three months of investigations, he was cleared of all charges. Simenon went to Paris in May 1945 while Marc and Boule returned to their house near La Rochelle with Régine. Simenon, possibly out of concern that the French Communist Party might take over France, had decided to move to America. The rest of the family soon joined him in Paris and Simenon used his contacts to secure

1587-496: The Marquis' employ in 1924 and returned to Paris where he and Régine found an apartment in the fashionable Place des Vosges . Simenon was writing and selling short stories at the rate of 80 typed pages a day, and now turned his hand to pulp novels. His first, Le roman d'une dactylo (The Story of a Typist) was quickly sold and two more appeared in 1924 under the pseudonyms "Jean du Perry" and "Georges Simm". From 1921 to 1934 he used

1656-407: The Marquis, Simenon began submitting stories to Le Matin whose literary editor was Colette . Colette advised him to make his work "less literary" which Simenon took to mean that he should use simple descriptions and a limited stock of common words. Simenon followed her advice and within a year became one of the paper's regular contributors. Now with a steady income from his writing, Simenon left

1725-527: The Paris mobile crime brigade was a fully developed character. The novel was serialised in Fayard's magazine Ric et Rac later that year, and was the first fictional work to appear under Simenon's real name. The first Maigret novels were launched in book form by Fayard in February 1931 at the fancy dress bal anthropométrique which had a police and criminals theme. The launching party was widely reported and

1794-532: The Simenon home in January 1946, and several weeks later told Régine that she was his new lover. Simenon fictionalised his affair with Denyse in his novels Trois chambres à Manhattan ( Three Bedrooms in Manhattan ) (1947) and Lettre à mon juge ( Act of Passion ) (1947). The Simenons and Denyse drove to Florida in the summer of 1946, and then visited Cuba in order to arrange for permanent residence visas for

1863-584: The Spanish military for his loyalty, discipline, courage, heroism, and sagacity. However, as a sergeant, he was taken prisoner on 31 October 1817, and at this point he was convinced that freeing his homeland from Spain's domination was a just cause and joined the patriot army of Simón Bolívar . In the Patriot army he became loyal and acquainted with Simon Bolivar, who at an early stage recognized Juan José Flores' outstanding heroism and military talents especially at

1932-837: The United States. It was in Florida that Simenon wrote Lettre à mon juge , widely considered one of his major works. In June 1947, the Simenons moved to Arizona. Boule joined them there in 1948, after Régine dropped her objections to Simenon's desire to have a wife and two lovers in his household. Simenon continued to write quickly, working from 6 am to 9 am daily, and averaging 4,500 words a day. While in Arizona, Simenon wrote two Maigret novels and several romans durs (hard novels) including La neige était sale ( The Snow Was Dirty ) (1948), one of his major works. The 1951 American paperback edition of this novel sold 2 million copies. Denyse became pregnant in early 1949, and Simenon asked Régine for

2001-420: The Vendée. Later in 1940, a local doctor examined Simenon and diagnosed a serious heart illness, advising him to cut back on his favourite pastimes of pipe smoking, excessive eating, alcohol, and sex. Simenon began working on his memoirs Je me souviens (I remember), intended as a letter to his son from a father who would soon be dead. A second medical opinion was later sought, and Simenon was assured his heart

2070-415: The elections of 1842, he pushed to have the 1835 constitution annulled, and the new constitution, nicknamed the " Carta de la esclavitud " ("charter of slavery") allowed him to continue in power for a third term, which began 1 April 1843. During this term, Flores fought to remain in power, but was ultimately overthrown on 6 March 1845 by a rebellion led by Rocafuerte and Vicente Ramón Roca , the man who became

2139-485: The family moved to 3 rue Pasteur (now 25 rue Georges Simenon) in Liège's Outremeuse  [ fr ] neighbourhood. Simenon's brother Christian was born in September 1906 and eventually became their mother's favourite child, which Simenon resented. The young Simenon, however, idolised his father and later claimed to have partly modelled Maigret's temperament on him. At the age of three, Simenon learned to read at

Floreana Island - Misplaced Pages Continue

2208-692: The first (in 1830), third (in 1839) and fourth (in 1843) President of the new Republic of Ecuador . He is often referred to as "The Founder of the Republic". Juan José Flores' contemporaries described his physical appearance as a proud man in military uniform, slender and short but well proportioned, with a handsome countenance that radiates quick intelligence and a commanding presence. Juan José Flores appeared to be self-taught, and despite his scant rudimentary education, he became an eloquent orator and an avid reader of contemporary authors such as Rousseau , Montesquieu , Holbach , and Vattel . Juan José Flores

2277-527: The group who had settled there. They set up a hotel which is still managed by their descendants. Mrs. Wittmer wrote an account of her experiences as Floreana: A Woman's Pilgrimage to the Galápagos . While residing in Tahiti in 1935, Georges Simenon wrote the novel Ceux de la Soif , which recounts these events in fictionalized form. The story was first published as a feuilleton in the newspaper Le Soir between 12 December 1936 and 1 January 1937, and as

2346-409: The illegitimate and only son of Juan José Aramburu, a rich and distinguished Spanish merchant from Spain, and to a Venezuelan, Rita Flores Bohorques . Eventually his father returned to Europe, abandoning his only son Juan José Flores and his mother to a life of extreme poverty . Because up to age 14 Juan José Flores received scant formal education, his impoverished mother placed him to learn and work in

2415-506: The island was set afire in 1820 as a result of a prank gone wrong by helmsman Thomas Chappel from the Nantucket whaling ship Essex . Being at the height of the dry season, Chappel's fire soon burned out of control and swept the island. The next day saw the island still burning as the ship sailed for an offshore anchorage and after a full day of sailing the fire was still visible on the horizon. Many years later Thomas Nickerson, who had been

2484-558: The locals), and the International Union for Conservation of Nature classified the Floreana tortoise ( Chelonoidis elephantopus sometimes called Chelonoidis nigra ) as extinct. However, it may be that there are pure Floreana tortoises living on other islands in the archipelago. Juan Jos%C3%A9 Flores Juan José Flores y Aramburu (19 July 1800 – 1 October 1864) was a Venezuelan -born military general who became

2553-519: The members of the group, Joseph Kleine, hanged himself at the doors of the St Pholien church of Liège after a night of excess with Le Caque . Simenon was one of the last people to see Kleine alive and was deeply affected by his suicide, later referring to the incident in Les trois crimes de mes amis and Le pendu de St Pholien ( The Hanged Man of Saint Pholien ) (1931). Through Le Caque, Simenon met

2622-440: The most popular authors of the 20th century, he published around 400 novels (including 192 under his own name), 21 volumes of memoirs and many short stories, selling over 500 million copies. Apart from his detective fiction, he achieved critical acclaim for his literary novels which he called romans durs (hard novels). Among his literary admirers were Max Jacob , François Mauriac and André Gide . Gide wrote, “I consider Simenon

2691-427: The name King Charles and Charles Island , which Cowley had given to Española Island in honor of King Charles   II of England . (He similarly named Santiago after James   II.) When it is used, the name Charles Island is still applied following Colnett's misplacement rather than Cowley's original intention. Due to its relatively flat surface, supply of fresh water as well as plants and animals, Floreana

2760-612: The next 39 years. Simenon began an affair with Josephine Baker in 1926 or 1927, and became her part-time assistant and editor of Josephine Baker's Magazine . However, the Simenons were tiring of their hectic life in Paris, and in April 1928 they set out with Boule for a six-month tour of the rivers and canals of France in a small boat, the Ginette . Without the distractions provided by Josephine Baker, Simenon's tally of published popular novels increased from 11 in 1927 to 44 in 1928. In

2829-516: The next president of Ecuador. Flores died of uremia in 1864 while in campaign supporting the presidency of Gabriel García Moreno . Floreana Island in the Galapagos Archipelago is named for Flores. Georges Simenon Georges Joseph Christian Simenon ( French: [ʒɔʁʒ simnɔ̃] ; 12/13 February 1903 – 4 September 1989) was a Belgian writer, most famous for his fictional detective Jules Maigret . One of

Floreana Island - Misplaced Pages Continue

2898-434: The northern end of the island, while the youngest (26 ka ) are on the southern end. Cerro Pajas , the tallest inactive volcano on the island, is the origin of the largest lava flow (272 ka). The island has been recognised as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International . It supports one of the main colonies of critically endangered Galápagos petrels in the archipelago, with about 350 nests scattered beneath

2967-466: The novels received positive reviews. Simenon wrote 19 Maigret novels by the end of 1933, and the series eventually sold 500 million copies. In April 1932, the Simenons and Boule moved to La Rochelle in south-west France. Soon after, they left for Africa where Simenon visited his brother, who was a colonial administrator in the Belgian Congo. Simenon also visited other African colonies and wrote

3036-576: The outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Liège was occupied by the German army. Henriette took in German officers as lodgers, much to Désiré's disapproval. Simenon later said that the war years provided some of the happiest times of his life. They were also memorable for a child because "my father cheated, my mother cheated, everyone cheated." In October 1914, Simenon began his studies at

3105-598: The required travel documents for America. Régine, however, refused to travel to America with Marc unless Boule stayed behind in France. Simenon reluctantly agreed to Régine's demand. The Simenons arrived in New York in October 1945 and soon moved to Canada, where they set up home at Ste-Marguerite du Lac Masson , north of Montreal. In November, Simenon met Denyse Ouimet, a 25-year-old French-Canadian, with whom he started an affair and hired as his secretary. Denyse moved into

3174-454: The rest of his life. He described these scenes in Pedigree and Les trois crimes de mes amis (My Friends' Three Crimes) (1938). In January 1919, the 15-year-old Simenon took a job as a junior reporter at the Gazette de Liège , a right-wing Catholic newspaper edited by Joseph Demarteau. Within a few months he was promoted to crime reporting, signing his articles "Georges Sim". By April he

3243-517: The sake of their child, but to give each other their sexual freedom. In November 1944, following the German retreat, Simenon, Marc and Boule moved to a hotel in the resort town of Les Sables d'Olonne , while Régine returned to their house near La Rochelle which had now been evacuated by the Germans. In January 1945, Simenon was placed under house arrest by the police and the French Forces of

3312-519: The spring of 1929, the Simenons and Boule set off for a tour of northern France, Belgium and Holland in a larger, custom-built boat, the Ostrogoth . Simenon had begun contributing detective stories to a new magazine called Détective and continued to publish popular novels, mainly with the publishers Fayard. During his northern tour, Simenon wrote three popular novels featuring a police inspector named Maigret, but only one, Train de nuit (Night Train)

3381-478: The temporary retirement of Maigret, include Le testament Donadieu ( The Shadow Falls ) (1937), L'homme qui regardait passer les trains ( The Man who Watched the Trains Go By ) (1938) and Le bourgmestre de Furnes ( The Burgomaster of Furnes ) (1939). André Gide and François Mauriac were among Simenon's greatest literary admirers at the time. In 1935, the Simenons undertook a world tour which included

3450-542: The two made an agreement – Rocafuerte would become president after Flores, and Flores would become leader of the military. Also during his term, he fought an invading Colombian army in 1832 and again starting in 1834, finally defeating them on 18 January 1835 in Miñarica , near Ambato . He was President of the Senate in 1837. Flores' second term began on 1 February 1839, and ended 15 January 1843. The beginning of his term

3519-496: The victory at the Battle of Carabobo (1821), that at age 23 he was promoted to Colonel and then to Commandant General of the recently freed Royalist city of Pasto . On 13 May 1830, the day of Ecuador's breaking away from Gran Colombia , Flores was named supreme chief of the new country, and then on 14 August 1830, he was named provisional president. His official term, however, did not start until 22 September 1830, 11 days after he

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3588-410: The war years are La veuve Couderc ( The Widow Couderc ) (1942), Le fuite de M. Monde (Monsieur Monde Vanishes ) (published 1945), and Pedigree (published 1948) . Simenon also conducted correspondence, most notably with André Gide. Gide considered La veuve Couderc superior to Camus' The Stranger which was published around the same time and has a similar main character and themes. During

3657-489: The war, Simenon sold the film rights to five of his novels to Continental Films , which was funded by the German government and banned the participation of Jews. The Continental production of Simenon's Les inconnus dans la maison ( Strangers in the House ) had exaggerated anti-Semitic themes which are not in the novel. Resistance underground newspapers began attacking Continental Films and anyone who took their money. In 1942,

3726-403: The world, wartime experiences, troubled marriages, and numerous love affairs. Critics such as John Banville have praised Simenon's novels for their psychological insights and vivid evocation of time and place. Among his most notable works are The Saint-Fiacre Affair (1932), Monsieur Hire's Engagement (1933), Act of Passion (1947), The Snow was Dirty (1948) and The Cat (1967). Simenon

3795-471: The writer Binet-Valmer . In March 1923, he returned to Liège to marry Régine. Although neither Simenon or Régine were religious, they were married in a Catholic church to please Simenon's mother, who was devout. The newly-weds moved to Paris where Régine tried to establish herself as a painter while Simenon resumed work for Binet-Valmer and sent articles to the Revue Sincère of Brussels for which he

3864-527: Was a favorite stop for whalers and other visitors to the Galápagos. Since the 19th century, whalers kept a wooden barrel at Post Office Bay, so that mail could be picked up and delivered to their destination by ships on their way home, mainly to Europe and the United States . Cards and letters are still placed in the barrel without any postage. Visitors sift through the letters and cards in order to deliver them by hand. Still known as Charles Island,

3933-601: Was accepted by Fayard. Simenon began working on the latter novel (or possibly its successor Pietr-le-Letton (Pietr the Latvian) ) in September 1929 when the Ostrogoth was undergoing repairs in the Dutch city of Delfzijl , and the city is now celebrated as the birthplace of Simenon's most famous character. On his return to Paris in April 1930, Simenon completed Pietr-le-Letton, the first novel in which commissioner Maigret of

4002-448: Was born at 26 Rue Léopold (Liège) (now number 24) to Désiré Simenon and his wife Henriette Brüll. Désiré Simenon worked in an accounting office at an insurance company and had married Henriette in April 1902. Simenon was either born at 11.30 pm on Thursday 12 February 1903 (according to the birth certificate), or just after midnight on Friday 13th (the date possibly being falsified on the certificate due to superstition). The Simenon family

4071-600: Was born there, the first person known to have been born in the Galápagos. Later in 1932, the Austrian "Baroness" von Wagner Bosquet arrived with two German companions, Robert Philippson and Rudolph Lorenz, as well as the Ecuadorian guide Manuel Valdivieso Borja. A series of strange disappearances and deaths (including possible murders) and the departure of Strauch then left the Wittmers as the sole remaining inhabitants of

4140-604: Was born. Simenon was in a café in La Rochelle when France declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939. In May 1940, Germany invaded Belgium, and La Rochelle became the reception centre for Belgian refugees. The Belgian government appointed Simenon Commissioner for Refugees, and he organised the reception, accommodation, and food and health needs for some 55,000 war refugees before the armistice of 22 June. By August, all Belgian refugees had been repatriated and Simenon resumed civilian life in his new home at Fontenay-le-Compte in

4209-471: Was elected constitutional president by the assembly in Riobamba . That term lasted until 10 September 1834, and was marked with much turmoil. Flores faced a rebellion led by Luis Urdaneta , a loyalist of Simón Bolívar , who wanted to prevent Ecuador from leaving Gran Colombia. Flores also faced a threat from a member of the Ecuadorian congress, Vicente Rocafuerte , who attempted to overthrow him. Eventually,

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4278-483: Was given his own opinion and gossip column which he signed "Monsieur Le Coq." He was also assigned interviews with leading international figures such as Hirohito, Crown Prince of Japan, and French war hero Marshal Foch. In 1920-21 he enrolled in a course on forensic science at the University of Liège in order to improve his knowledge of the latest police methods. In May 1920, Simenon began publishing short fiction in

4347-481: Was marked by peace and social development—he kept his word to rule justly and to defend freedom. However, in the last year of his term, he intervened militarily in the politics of Nueva Granada at the request of the Colombian government, fighting his old enemy, José María Obando . When later forced to intervene again, he was attacked by the Colombian army and his popularity at home fell. Then, after irregularities in

4416-485: Was of Walloon and Flemish ancestry, settling in the Belgian Limburg in the seventeenth century. His mother's family was of Flemish, Dutch and German descent. One of his mother's most notorious ancestors was Gabriel Brühl , a criminal who preyed on Limburg from the 1720s until he was hanged in 1743. Later, Simenon would use Brühl as one of his many pen names. In April 1905, two years after Simenon's birth,

4485-467: Was so fascinated with reading that in 1826 he asked for and received a shipment of books from General Santander , then vice-president of the Gran Colombia . Later in life, the professors of the University of Quito recognized Juan Jose Flores' efforts and bestowed an honorary doctorate on Flores in 1842. Juan José Flores Aramburu was born on 19 July 1800, in the city of Puerto Cabello , Venezuela,

4554-432: Was sound. Simenon returned to writing Maigret stories and novels, completing two in 1940 and three in 1941. He also wrote longer novels such as Pedigree, a fictionalised reworking of Je me souviens . As a popular, non-Jewish author who avoided war themes and anti-German sentiments, Simenon had few problems in having his works published at a time of censorship and paper restrictions. Among his major works written during

4623-423: Was the Paris correspondent. He also wrote short stories for popular magazines, but sales were sporadic. In the summer of 1923, Simenon was engaged by the Marquis de Tracy as his private secretary, which obliged him to spend nine months of the year at the aristocrat's various rural properties. Régine soon moved to a village near the Marquis's principal estate at Paray-le-Frésil , near Moulins . While working for

4692-440: Was the site of the island's first human settlement and is now among its most popular tourist attractions. The demands of these visitors, early settlers, and introduced species devastated much of the local wildlife with the endemic Floreana tortoise being declared extinct and the endemic Floreana mockingbird becoming extirpated on the island (the few remaining are found on the nearby islands of Gardiner and Champion). Floreana

4761-461: Was transferred to the cavalry barracks in Liège and was soon given permission to resume writing for the Gazette. When Simenon's military service ended in December 1922, he resigned from the Gazette and moved to Paris to establish a base for himself and his future wife Régine, whom he preferred to call "Tigy". Now in Paris, Simenon found a menial job with a far-right political group headed by

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