Roger Vailland

Roger Vailland (16 October 1907 – 12 May 1965) was a French novelist, essayist, and screenwriter. Vailland was born in Acy-en-Multien, Oise. His novels include the prize winning Drôle de jeu (1945), Les mauvais coups (1948), Un jeune homme seul (1951), 325 000 francs (1955), and La loi (1957), winner of the Prix Goncourt. His screenplays include Les liaisons dangereuses (with Claude Brûlé and Roger Vadim, 1959) and Le vice et la vertu (with Vadim, 1962). He died, aged 57, in Meillonnas, Ain.Vailland took part in the French Resistance during Nazi occupation. Drôle de jeu (Playing with Fire) is considered one of the finest novels about the anti-fascist Resistance. Vailland joined the French Communist Party but resigned after the Soviet suppression of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. He remained an independent leftist for the rest of his life.