Biography of Georges Simenon  
Belgian novelist, born in Liège in 1903, as the son of an insurance clerk. His real name was George Sims. As an adolescent he worked as a baker and a bookseller and started his career as a writer at the age of 16 at a local newspaper. He began work as a journalist with the Gazette de Liège. From 1928 onwards he began to write popular novels, under the pseudonym Sim, and these met with rapid success.

He was often working from as early as 4 am, through the whole morning, leaving the rest of the day for his other activities. He was famous for preparing the scenario of his plots and profiles of his characters in layouts written with a pencil on yellow envelopes. This habit was helping him to keep his work together and seemed to facilitate his inspiration.

Maigret was first introduced in “The Strange Case of Peter the Lett” (1931). Some of Simenon's works are remarkable for their psychological analysis, for example, “The Man Who Watched the Trains Go By” (1938), “Act of Passion” (1947) and “The Little Saint” (1965).

His novels achieved outstanding success in Europe and the United States, and editions have appeared in many languages. Among the many titles published are “The Patience of Maigret” (1940) and “Maigret Hesitates” (1970). His autobiography, “Intimate Memoirs” was published in 1981. Altogether, Simenon wrote 84 Maigret mysteries and 136 other novels. Simenon's books have been printed over 500 million and translated into 55 languages. His last Maigret novel was published in 1972.

Simenon spent the late 1940s and early 1950s in the United States, but returned in 1955 to Europe and settled eventually in Lausanne, Switzerland. He passed away in 1989.