Foreign News: Immortal for Eternity

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, a novelist rejected for his wartime collaboration (TIME, May 4). Asked if this was a factor in his withdrawal, Benoit sidestepped with Gallic nimbleness: “It was not only that.”