Pierre (-Fran - Novels, Collections

Novelist, born in Avignon, SE France. He studied to become an electrical engineer but instead went to Asia, where he spent eight years as a planter and soldier. He took the descriptive material for his novels from his travels there, and frequently set his plots against a colonial background. His best-known work is Le Pont de la rivière Kwai (1952, The Bridge on the River Kwai, 1954) which received the prix Sainte-Beuve in 1959, the same year it was made into an Oscar-winning film. He then turned to writing novels of the fantastic, including Contes de l'absurde (1953), and to science fiction, La Planète des singes (1963, Planet of the Apes), which was also made into a popular series of film (beginning in 1968). Later books include Les Oreilles de jungle (1972), Le Bon Leviathan (1978), and A nous deux Satan (1992).

Pierre Boulle (20 February 1912 – 30 January 1994) was a French novelist largely known for his combination of psychology and adventure most famously in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1952) and Planet of the Apes (1963). At the outbreak of World War II Boulle enlisted with the French army in French Indochina, and after German troops occupied France he joined the Free French Mission in Singapore.

He served as a secret agent under the name Peter John Rule and helped the resistance movement in China, Burma and French Indochina.

For a while after the war, he returned to work in the rubber industry but moved back to Paris, where he began to write. Using his experiences in the war, he wrote Le Pont de la rivière Kwaï (1952; The Bridge on the River Kwai) which became a multi-million worldwide bestseller, winning the French "Prix Sainte-Beuve".

David Lean made Boulle's story into a motion picture that won several 1957 Oscars, including the Best Picture, and Best Actor for Alec Guinness.

In 1963, following several other reasonably successful novels, Pierre Boulle published his other famous novel, first published in France as La Planète des singes, and a year later in the United Kingdom in an English translation entitled Monkey Planet - later to be known as Planet of the Apes.

Pierre Boulle died in Paris, France on 30 January 1994.

Novels

Le sacrilège malais (1951) Le Pont de la rivière Kwaï (1952; The Bridge on the River Kwai) Le Bourreau (1954; U.S. title The Executioner, UK title The Chinese Executioner) - philosophical tales in the manner of Voltaire inspired by legends from the Orient. Not The Glory (1955) Saving Face (1956) E=MC2 (1957) Face of a Hero (1956) The Test (1957) Other Side of the Coin (1956) Walt Disney's Siam (1958) S.O.P.H.I.A. (1959) A Noble Profession (1960) For a Noble Cause (1961) La Planète des singes (1963; Monkey Planet aka Planet of the Apes The Photographer (1967) Les Oreilles de jungle (1972; The Good Leviathan) Miroitements (1982;Mirrors of the Sun) La Baleine des Malouines (1983; U.S. title The Whale of the Victoria Cross; UK title The Falklands Whale) Pour l'amour de l'art (1985; "For the love of art") Le Professeur Mortimer (1988) A nous deux, Satan! (1992)

Collections

Contes de l'absurde (1953; "Stories of the Absurd") Histoires charitables (1965) Quia absurdum (1966) Time Out of Mind: And Other Stories (1966) The Marvellous Palace: And Other Stories (1977)