Alain-Fournier was born in
La Chapelle-d'Angillon, in the
Cher département, in central France, the son of school teachers. Everyone who knew him called him "Henri", his first name or "Fournier", his last name, as "Alain-Fournier" was merely a nom-de-plume. He had a younger sister, Isabelle, to whom he was very close. She was one of his first readers, his confidante and most constant friend and supporter throughout his life. He studied at the
Lycée Lakanal in
Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, near Paris, where he prepared for the entrance examination to the
École Normale Supérieure. He met there fellow student
Jacques Rivière, and the two became close friends, though it took a while as Henri's rebellious and playful nature first kept Jacques at bay. He was then the leader of a group of boys who were fighting against hazing, and circulating revolutionary petitions. About their growing friendship, Jacques Rivière wrote: "Underneath his untamed exterior, I found him to be tender, naive, filled with a sweet, dreamy sap, even infinitely more vulnerable than me, which is saying something, in the face of life". The two of them had long and insightful talks and shared the same sensitivity and love for words and poetry, especially the Symbolist movement. In early 1905, he started to write poems such as "L'ondée" (The shower) and "Conte du soleil et de la route" (Tale of the sun and the road). He shared them with his sister Isabelle, who loved them and wrote him: "Only in you have I truly sensed a strong and ardent soul, a poet's soul, someone who suffers and feels; a bare soul, stripped from all these things that spoil and darken all the others, and only with you have I felt that I was really me, that I could show everything, that you would understand everything". On the first of June 1905, while he was taking a stroll along the banks of the
Seine, Henri saw as she was walking in the other direction. He was amazed and followed her aboard a river boat and in the streets, to the house she was staying at. He came back there a few times in the following days, hoping to meet her. Ten days later, on 11 June, he finally had his chance as she was going out on her own. He followed her again aboard a streetcar, inside a church and in the streets, until he plucked up the courage to talk to her. Yvonne first rebuffed him, but he eventually won her trust, and they walked and talked together. This moment was faithfully fictionalized in
Le Grand Meaulnes, when Augustin Meaulnes meets Yvonne De Galais for the first time. Yvonne (who was actually engaged) ended up mysteriously saying: "We are children, we acted foolishly" and asked Henri to not follow her again as she was leaving, though, a few steps further, she turned around to look at him for a long time before disappearing in the crowd. He also wrote and shared with him his latest poem "A travers les étés" (From summer to summer), that tells the tale of their encounter. Back in Paris from 1905 to 1907 to finish his studies, Henri Fournier expressed in letters how oppressed he felt, that his studies and the idea of pursuing a career became meaningless to him, and that he felt unable to please his parents in that regard. He wrote to Jacques: "Since I got here, there is like something suffocating me. I am fighting with all I have to pick up this courage and confidence that fell down. It's hard and dark and inexplicable". With Isabelle, he shared: "This exam doesn't speak to me. Far from being an ideal, it's not even a temporary goal or a first step to make. From now on, I can't bring myself to use my brain for this. [...] My life doesn't lie in studying until cerebral exhaustion. I am looking for my life. My only regret is for my parents. Since a long time, I have ceased to see through their eyes. And I will not fulfill their ideal, that they spent much money on". During these same years, he was often coming back to wait in front of the house where he saw Yvonne the previous year (though she never returned) and in January 1906, he wrote his poem "Et maintenant que c'est la pluie" (And now that it's raining) about these moments and his longing for her. On 1 June 1906, he came back at the very same place he first saw Yvonne, waiting for her as he hoped that she was also looking for him, but she did not appear. He became a
literary critic, writing for the
Paris-Journal. There he met
André Gide and
Paul Claudel. However, he wasn't satisfied with his job and he was struggling with society's expectations against his own dreams, and the constant fear of wasting his youth. His sister Isabelle and Jacques Rivière had met in 1907 when Jacques stayed with their family for a few weeks, they had soon fallen in love and they married in 1909. Henri was then living with them (and his and Isabelle's parents) up to 1910. The three of them were enjoying Paris' effervescent artistic life together, though Isabelle and Jacques worried about Henri's state of mind, which especially showed in the way he seemed unable to start doing anything. or spending all day wandering in the rain and having nightmares at night where he couldn't recognize his house and no one could hear him call out for help. In 1910, he started a two-year on-and-off relationship with Jeanne Bruneau, a country-born milliner who inspired him the character of Valentine in "
Le Grand Meaulnes". Their romance almost ended soon after they met, when Jeanne confided in him about former relationships, and that remained the object of several arguments and break-ups between them. He wrote her several romantic and passionate letters which show how much he wanted to share with her his ideal about love and hoped to teach her how to believe in true love the way he did. Though their situation was unusual as they weren't married or engaged (he actually first hid it from them altogether), he introduced her to Isabelle (alongside his beloved niece Jacqueline) and Jacques (who later revealed to Isabelle that she didn't say a word or even look at him), and he contemplated marrying her, but they eventually parted ways, mostly because he couldn't bring himself to propose to anyone but Yvonne and he felt that Jeanne didn't manage to fully understand and enter the fairy world he carried with him In 1911, he gave French lessons to fellow poet
T. S. Eliot who was then staying in Paris. He started writing "Le Grand Meaulnes" in 1910, at his parents' house. He then wrote to Jacques and Isabelle: "For two weeks, I tried to artificially construct this book as I had started. It wasn't going anywhere. Eventually, I threw it all away and [...] I started to write simply, directly, like one of my letters. I threw away all this abstraction and this philosophy I was tangled with. And the most amazing thing is that there's still everything, all of me".
Le Grand Meaulnes was finished in early 1913, and was published first in the
Nouvelle Revue Française (from July to October 1913) and then as a book, which was nominated for, but did not win, the
Prix Goncourt. It was dedicated to his sister Isabelle. The same year, Henri finally found Yvonne's trail again, as Jacques Rivière's younger brother Marc was studying medicine in Rochefort, the town where her family lived. Marc was in the know since Henri and him had met in 1907, and he brought it up when he was introduced to Yvonne's younger sister. Henri and Yvonne were then able to meet again for a couple days, as she was visiting her family. She introduced him to her mother, her sister and her children, and they could talk about their first encounter and what it meant to them. Henri also showed her a letter he wrote for her the previous year, expressing his love and faithfulness and telling her that his then upcoming novel, "Le Grand Meaulnes" was all about her. According to , professor at the
University of Düsseldorf, it is correct that Alain-Fournier's patrol attacked a German ambulance, but it is difficult to establish the facts. Most of the writing of Alain-Fournier was published posthumously:
Miracles (a volume of poems and essays) in 1924, his correspondence with Jacques Rivière in 1926 and his letters to his family in 1930. His notes and sketches for
Colombe Blanchet have also been published. ==Albin Schram manuscripts==