He was descended from a Lutheran family converted to Catholicism.
[1] In Algiers he met Saint-Saëns, and devoted his first work to him.
He was directly involved in the Catholic Literary Renaissance movement, alongside such people as François Mauriac, Paul Claudel and Pierre Reverdy.
[3] He was awarded the Prix Balzac in 1922 for his novel Job le Prédestiné.
[4] In 1931 he married the engraver and artist Elisabeth de Groux, daughter of Belgian painter Henry de Groux.