Election to the French Academy is for eternity and its 36 distinguished members are known as the "Immortals." Last week the Immortals were stunned when 72-year-old Novelist Pierre Benoit, an Academy member since 1931, asked to resign. The Academy refused. Said Nobel Prize Author Francois Mauriac: "One does not resign from the Academy. One is immortal for eternity." Benoit, touched by the Academy's refusal but unpersuaded, replied: "I will never again set foot in the Academy. It would really be tactless of me." Benoit had supported the unsuccessful Academy candidacy of Paul Morand,...
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