Pierre Mille

Pierre Mille (27 November 1864 – 13 January 1941) was a French writer and journalist. His name remains attached to the Pierre Mille Prize for the best reportage, awarded by the French Overseas Press Union and intended to reward a journalist of the French-speaking written or audiovisual press.

Biography

Pierre Mille was born in Choisy-le-Roi, the son of Adolphe Auguste Mille, Inspector General of the Bridges and Roads, Officer of the Legion of Honour, and Marie-Henriette-Catherine Beaussier. He studied law. At first Mille worked as a solicitor's clerk, and in 1896 he was appointed chief of staff to the secretary general of the governor of Madagascar. He then began a long career in journalism, notably at the newspaper Le Temps, which made him one of the great specialists of his time on colonial issues. After covering the Greco-Turkish war of 1897, he discovered Africa, India, Indochina, etc. But it was Tunisia to which he was particularly attached.

This journalist specialized in colonial questions and was one of the founders (1923) of the Academy of Colonial Sciences which became (1957) the Academy of Overseas Sciences, which he presided over from 1933 to 1934. In 1926 he was also one of the founders of the Association of Colonial Writers, which he chaired between 1933 and 1936; he was also a member of the Superior Council of the Colonies (in another register, he was also a founding member of the Academy of Gastronomes in 1929).

Elevated to the dignity of Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour by decree of August 5, 1939, the decoration was given to him by his friend General Gouraud on December 11, 1939. The tie of Commander of the Legion of Honour was given to him on October 19, 1923 by J.-H. Rosny aîné. He had been named knight in 1900 and promoted to officer in 1911.

Works

• De Thessalie en Crète, impressions de campagne, avril-mai 1897 (1898)
• Au Congo belge, avec des notes et des documents récents relatifs au Congo français (1899; awarded the Montyon Prize in 1900 by the Académie française)
• Notice sur la Côte d'Ivoire (1900)
• Sur la vaste terre (recueil de nouvelles) (1905; awarded the Prix de Jouy in 1907 by the Académie française)
• Barnavaux et quelques femmes (1907; novellas)
• La biche écrasée (1910)
• Caillou et Tili (1911)
• Louise et Barnavaux (1912)
• Paraboles et Diversions (1913)
• Le Monarque (1914; novel)
• En croupe de Bellone (1916)
• Sous leur dictée (1917)
• Nasr'eddine et son épouse (1918; novel)
• Le Bol de Chine, ou Divagations sur les beaux-arts (1920)
• La nuit d'amour sur la montagne (1920)
• Histoires exotiques et merveilleuses (1920)
• Trois Femmes (1920)
• L’Inde en France (1920; with Paul-Émile Colin)
• Les mémoires d'un dada besogneux de l'armistice à 1925 (1921)
• L'Ange du bizarre (1921)
• Barnavaux (1921)
• Monsieur Barbe Bleue... et Madame (1922)
• Myrrhine courtisane et martyre (1922)
• La Détresse des Harpagon (1923; novel)
• La femme et l'homme nu (1924; novel; with André Demaison)
• Dix-sept histoires merveilleuses (1924)
• L'illustre Partonneau (1925; novel)
• L’Écrivain (1925)
• Le Diable au Sahara (1925)
• Christine et Lui (1926; novel)
• Le singe et la petite-fille (Histoires exotiques et merveilleuses) (1927; partly original edition with texts from the 1920 edition)
• Un prêtre qui pécha (recueil de nouvelles) (1927)
• Comment la baleine perdit ses pieds (1928)
• Mes trônes et mes dominations (1930)
• Quand le rideau s'est baissé (1930)
• Le roman français (1930)
• Mémoires d'un vagabond en retraite (1930)
• Au Maroc: chez les fils de l'ombre et du soleil (1931)
• La femme et le député (1933)
• L’homme qui ne savait pas dire "non" (1934)
• Les aventuriers (1937; novel)

External links

• Pierre Mille
• Works by Pierre Mille at Gallica
• Pierre Mille at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database