HENRY DE MONTHERLANT, French novelist and essayist born (d. 1972); Often compared to Hemingway, with whom he has much in common temperamentally, he is, in fact, the French Hemingway. In his novels, Montherlant explored the difficult areas of his ambiguous sexuality, exploiting his sexual affairs while muffling his even more intense affairs with men. What, if anything, might this tell us about Papa Hemingway? Montherlant concealed his pederastic tendencies from the public during his lifetime. In 1912, he had been expelled from the Sainte-Croix de Neuilly academy for a relationship with a fellow student. His novel Les garcons (1969) and his correspondence with Roger Peyrefitte, (author of Les Amitiés particulières (1943), also about sexual relationships between boys at a Roman Catholic boarding school), are the main testaments to this side of his character.

In 1960, Montherlant was elected to the French Academy without having made an express request. Twelve years later, blind, he commits suicide. Hemingway redux, d’accord.