Queer Places:
9 rue Édouard Detaille, Paris
Maurice
Duplay (Paris, July 25, 1880 - Paris, February 12, 1978) is a French novelist,
a friend of Marcel Proust, to
whom he dedicates a book. Montmartre was the setting for Adonis-Bar (1928).
The plot of this novel centered on a gay bar in the 1920s and sketched a
realistic picture of the decadent lives of Horace, the middle-aged owner, and
Fred, his much younger lover.
Maurice Duplay was born in Paris on July 25, 18801, the only son of surgeon Simon Duplay, member of the Academy of Medicine and inventor of nasal speculum, and Caroline Faugère-Dubourg. He was the great-grandson of the revolutionary Simon Duplay, who housed Maximilian de Robespierre on Rue Saint-Honoré from 17 July 1791 until his death. By his mother, he is the nephew of Charles Rabot. His father had studied medicine with Adrien Proust, Marcel Proust's father; the Duplay and Proust families live in the Madeleine and then the Plaine Monceau district and regularly visit2. Maurice Duplay was nine years younger than Marcel Proust; they were in an epistolary relationship from 1905 and Proust's letters to Duplay which are known to comment on the style and subject of the latter's work of fiction and to give literary advice3. On April 15, 1909, Maurice Duplay is with journalist Louis Besse the witness of Filippo Marinetti in the sword duel that pitted Marinetti against the dramatic critic Charles-Henry Hirsch over a dispute over poetry4. Maurice Duplay was a graduate of living Oriental languages. He served in the 1900 class with the 9th Infantry Regiment. His military register gives his physical description: brown hair and eyebrows, blue eyes, a 1,67 meter. In 1912, he resided in Paris, at 9 rue Édouard Detaille. Recalled to military activity on August 1, 1914, he took part in the 1914-1918 war and campaigned against Germany. It is paid into the auxiliary service following myocarditis. Maurice Duplay married Pauline Kettler, born in Paris on February 22, 1887, in Paris on February 5, 1924.5, who died on September 27, 19636.
My published books:
