Paul Claudel (August 6, 1868 – February 23, 1955) was a French poet and diplomat, and the younger brother of the sculptor Camille Claudel.
Life
He was born in Villeneuve-sur-Fère, into a family of farmers and gentry. His father, Louis-Prosper, dealt in mortgages and bank transactions. His mother, the former Louise Cerceaux, came from a Champagne family of Catholic farmers and priests. Having spent his first years in Champagne, he studied at the lycée of Bar-le-Duc and at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in 1881, when his parents moved to Paris.
Paul Claudel was a diplomat from 1893 to 1936. He was first vice-consul in New York (April 1893), and later in Boston (December 1893). He was French consul in China (1895-1909), including consul in Shanghai (June 1895), and vice-consul in Fuzhou (October 1900), in Prague (December 1909), Frankfurt am Main (October 1911), Hamburg (October 1913), ministre plénipotentiaire in Rio de Janeiro (1916), Copenhagen (1920), ambassador in Tokyo (1922-1928), Washington, DC (1928-1933) and Brussels (1933-1936).
In 1936 he retired to his château in Brangues (Isère).
Paul Claudel married Sainte-Marie Perrin on March 15, 1906.
Recognition
Paul Claudel was elected at the Académie française on April 4, 1946.
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