Henri Daniel-Rops

1901-1965. French Roman Catholic historian, essayist, and novelist. Graduate in history of the University of Grenoble (1922) and high school teacher until 1946, he changed from the family name of Petiot to Daniel-Rops (a character in one of his short stories) as a pseudonym so as to avoid the difficulty of obtaining permission from the ministry of education to publish. His literary output was enormous, including numerous short stories, essays, and nearly seventy books (twenty of them novels). For a time he was a leader among a group of young intellectuals called “The New Order” (1932ff.). At first merely a nominal Roman Catholic, from 1934 he began to assert himself as a man of faith and zeal. His novel Death, Where is thy Victory? (1934; ET 1946) had a widespread impact in France and was made into a film. His twelve-volume biblical and ecclesiastical history (1943- 56) has been translated into English. In 1955 he was elected to the French Academy.