Pierre Boulle (20 February 1912 – 30 January 1994) was a French novelist largely known for two famous works, The Bridge over the River Kwai (1952) and Planet of the Apes (1963).
Born Pierre-François-Marie-Louis Boulle in Avignon, France, Boulle was baptised and raised a Roman Catholic, although later in life he would be agnostic. He studied and later became an engineer. Then, from 1936 to 1939, he worked as a technician on British rubber plantat...
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Pierre Boulle (20 February 1912 – 30 January 1994) was a French novelist largely known for two famous works, The Bridge over the River Kwai (1952) and Planet of the Apes (1963).
Born Pierre-François-Marie-Louis Boulle in Avignon, France, Boulle was baptised and raised a Roman Catholic, although later in life he would be agnostic. He studied and later became an engineer. Then, from 1936 to 1939, he worked as a technician on British rubber plantations in Malaya. While there he met a Frenchwoman who was separated from her husband. She was to become the love of his life whom he would write tender love letters. She later chose to return to her husband, a French official. During World War II she and her husband escaped into Malaysia and one of her children died in the process. Boulle would later meet her after the war, and they enjoyed a platonic friendship.
At the outbreak of World War II, Boulle enlisted with the French army in French Indochina. After German troops occupied France, he...
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