Born in
Paris as
Pierre Godmé, he adopted his name after a character in
Ernest Psichari's book
Le Voyage du centurion. He was close to the
Action française without ever actually joining the group and also wrote for the
neo-Thomist La Gazette Francaise. He did not come to prominence until the 1930s when he wrote on myriad topics for the various reviews produced by the non-conformists. He was at this time a member of
Solidarité Française, albeit a fairly inactive one. From 1933 up to the war his main polemical outlet was his regular column, ostensibly about
literary criticism, in the journal
Gringoire. Maxence was taken to
Oflag II-D in 1940 before being allowed to return to France the following year. Once back home Maxence became reconciled to
Vichy France and took up his pen in support of the rule of
Philippe Pétain. However alongside this he also undertook work for Jewish charities during the Second World War, once again demonstrating his duplicitous relationship to mainstream far right opinion in France. Due to his public support for Vichy he went into exile in Switzerland after the war. There he became director of
Centre Supérieure de Philosophie in Geneva. He remained in Geneva until his death. His younger brother was the writer
Robert Francis, winner of the
Prix Femina in 1934 with a novel entitled
Le Bateau-refuge. ==References==