Achille-Claude Clarac

Achille Claude Clarac, also known as Claude Clarac (31 August 1903 - 11 January 1999) was a French diplomat.

Claude Clarac by Annemarie Schwarzenbach

Biography

Achille Claude Clarac was born on 31 August 1903 in Nantes, France.[1]

He studied law and entered the foreign service in 1930. In 1934 he became embassy secretary in Tehran, where he married, in May 1935, the Swiss writer and photojournalist Annemarie Schwarzenbach (1908-1942). Until 1942 he was Consul of France in Tetuan.[1]

Before the World War II he was employed in Washington, DC. From 31 March 1955 to 2 November 1956 he was French ambassador to Syria in Damascus. From 1959 to 1968 he was French ambassador in Thailand in Bangkok.[1]

He was made "Chevalier" de la Legion d'Honneur in 1946 and promoted to "Officier" in 1953.[1]

According to Schwarzenbach's biographers, Clarac was gay and theirs was a marriage of convenience for both of them, to have Schwarzenbach, who was lesbian, obtaining a French diplomatic passport enabling her to travel without restrictions. They were friends and when Schwarzenbach sustained a serious head injury and was dying, Clarac rushed from Tetuan to her deathbed in Engadin, but Schwarzenbach's mother, Renée Schwarzenbach-Wille, forbade everyone to see the daughter. Clarac adopted one son, Henri Pageau-Clarac.[2][3]

In 1971, with Michael Smithies, he wrote Discovering Thailand, published with Siam Publications.[2]

In 1973, under the pen-name of Saint Ours he wrote the gay collection of 7 stories, Un ange à Sodome (An Angel in Sodom), with the publisher Guy Authier.[4]

Claude Clarac died on 11 January 1999.

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References
  1. Walter Fähnders, Annemarie Schwarzenbach: Annemarie Schwarzenbach - analyzes and first editions ; with a Schwarzenbach bibliography, Aisthesis, 2005, p. 275
  2. "OBITUARY" (PDF). siamese-heritage.org. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
  3. Leybold-Johnson, Isobel. "Swiss writer's life was stranger than fiction". SWI swissinfo.ch. Retrieved 2017-06-22.
  4. "UN ANGE À SODOME de Claude Achille Clarac, alias Saint Ours". EO ÉrosOnyx Éditions. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
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