Jean d'Ormesson

Jean Bruno Wladimir François de Paule Le Fèvre d'Ormesson (born June 16, 1925) is a French novelist whose work mostly consists of partially or totally autobiographic novels.

Jean d'Ormesson was born in Paris and grew up in Bavaria. His father was André Lefèvre, Marquis of Ormesson, French ambassador to Brazil. Wladimir d'Ormesson (1888–1973), ambassador to the Vatican, was his uncle.

He was admitted to the École normale supérieure and passed the philosophy agrégation. He later became Secretary-General of the International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies at UNESCO and the director of the French newspaper Le Figaro from 1974 to 1979.

On October 18, 1973, he was elected a member of the Académie française, taking seat 12, following the death of Jules Romains. On the death of Claude Lévi-Strauss on October 30, 2009, he became the Dean of the Académie, its longest-serving member. He is also a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour. In 2010, he was awarded the Ovid Prize, Romania, in recognition of his body of work and he is Commander of the Order of the Southern Cross of Brazil.

Among his novels, d'Ormesson has a trilogy in which he recounts a much-imagined version of the exploits of four of the Mitford sisters as "Pandora, Vanessa, Atalanta and Jessica".