Editing Académie Française (section)

==Membership==
The {{Lang|fr|Académie Française|italic=no}} has forty seats, each of which is assigned a separate number. Candidates make their applications for a specific seat, not to the Académie in general: if several seats are vacant, a candidate may apply separately for each. Since a newly elected member is required to eulogize their predecessor in the installation ceremony, it is not uncommon that potential candidates refuse to apply for particular seats because they dislike the predecessors.{{citation needed|date=June 2015}}

Members are known as "{{lang|fr|les immortels}}" ("the Immortals") in reference to the Académie's [[motto]], {{lang|fr|À l'immortalité}} ("To Immortality"), which is inscribed on the official seal of the charter granted by Cardinal Richelieu.<ref name=aIM/>

One of the {{lang|fr|immortels}} is chosen by their colleagues to be the Académie's Perpetual Secretary. The Secretary is called "Perpetual", as the holder serves for life, but holds the ability to resign; they may thereafter be styled as "Honorary Perpetual Secretary", with three post-[[World War II]] Perpetual Secretaries having previously resigned due to old age. The Perpetual Secretary acts as a chairperson and chief representative of the Académie. The two other officers, a Director and a Chancellor, are elected for three-month terms. The most senior member, by date of election, is the Dean of the Académie.

New members are elected by the Académie itself; the original members were appointed. When a seat becomes vacant, a person may apply to the Secretary if they wish to become a candidate. Alternatively, existing members may nominate other candidates. A candidate is elected by a majority of votes from voting members. A [[quorum]] is twenty members. If no candidate receives an absolute majority, another election must be performed at a later date. The election is valid only if the protector of the Académie, the President of France, grants their approval. The President's approbation is only a formality.{{efn|There was a controversy about the candidacy of [[Paul Morand]], whom [[Charles de Gaulle]] opposed in 1958. Morand was finally elected ten years later, and he was received without the customary visit, at the time of investiture, to the Palace [[Élysée]].}}

[[Image:Poincare larger.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[Raymond Poincaré]] was one of the five French heads of state who became members of the {{Lang|fr|Académie Française|italic=no}}. He is depicted wearing the {{lang|fr|habit vert}}, or green habit, of the Académie.]]

The new member is then installed at a meeting of the Académie. The new member must deliver a speech to the Académie, which includes a [[eulogy]] for the member being replaced. This is followed by a speech made by one of the members. Eight days thereafter, a public reception is held, during which the new member makes a speech thanking their colleagues for their election. On one occasion, one newly installed member, [[Georges de Porto-Riche]], was not accorded a reception, as the eulogy he made of his predecessor was considered unsatisfactory, and he refused to rewrite it. [[Georges Clemenceau]] refused to be received, as he feared being received by his enemy, [[Raymond Poincaré]].

Members remain in the Académie for life. The council may dismiss an academician for grave misconduct. The first dismissal occurred in 1638, when [[Auger de Moléon de Granier]] was expelled for theft. The most recent dismissals occurred at the end of [[World War II]]: [[Philippe Pétain]], [[Abel Bonnard]], [[Abel Hermant]], and [[Charles Maurras]] were all excluded for their association with the [[Vichy France|Vichy regime]]. In total, 20 members have been expelled from the Académie.

There have been a total of 742 {{lang|fr|immortels}},<ref name=aIM/> of whom eleven have been women; [[Marguerite Yourcenar]] was the first woman to be elected, in 1980, but there have been 25 unsuccessful female candidacies, dating from 1874. Individuals who are not citizens of France may be, and have been, elected. Moreover, although most academicians are writers, it is not necessary to be a member of the literary profession to become a member. The Académie has included numerous politicians, lawyers, scientists, historians, philosophers, and senior [[Roman Catholicism|Roman Catholic]] clergymen. Five French heads of state have been members – [[Adolphe Thiers]], [[Raymond Poincaré]], [[Paul Deschanel]], [[Philippe Pétain]], and [[Valéry Giscard d'Estaing]] – and one foreign head of state, the poet [[Léopold Sédar Senghor]] of [[Senegal]], who was also the first African elected, in 1983.<ref name=WDL1>{{cite web|title=Message from Mister Leopold Sedar Senghor, President of the Republic, to the Senegalese People|url=http://www.wdl.org/en/item/2538|publisher=[[World Digital Library]]|access-date=28 April 2013}}</ref> Other famous members include [[Voltaire]]; [[Montesquieu]]; [[Victor Hugo]]; [[Alexandre Dumas, fils]]; [[Émile Littré]]; [[Louis Pasteur]]; [[Louis de Broglie]]; and [[Henri Poincaré]].

Many notable French writers have not become members of the {{Lang|fr|Académie Française|italic=no}}. In 1855, the writer [[Arsène Houssaye]] devised the expression "forty-first seat" for deserving individuals who were never elected to the Académie, either because their candidacies were rejected, because they were never candidates, or because they died before appropriate vacancies arose. Notable French authors who never became academicians include [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]], [[Jean-Paul Sartre]], [[Joseph de Maistre]], [[Honoré de Balzac]], [[René Descartes]], [[Denis Diderot]], [[Romain Rolland]], [[Charles Baudelaire]], [[Gustave Flaubert]], [[Molière]], [[Marcel Proust]], [[Jules Verne]], [[Théophile Gautier]], and [[Émile Zola]].

===Uniform===
[[File:At the French Academy of Sciences.jpg|thumb|[[Bernard Dujon]] and his colleague [[Eric Westhof]], wearing the "Habit vert" of the {{Lang|fr|Institut de France|italic=no}}]]
The official uniform of a member is known as {{lang|fr|l'habit vert}}, or green clothing.<ref name=uniform>{{cite news
| publisher = {{Lang|fr|Académie Française|italic=no}} official website
| url = http://www.academie-francaise.fr/les-immortels/lhabit-vert-et-lepee
| title = L'habit vert et l'épée 
| access-date = 2018-06-14
}}</ref>  The {{lang|fr|habit vert}}, worn at the Académie's formal ceremonies, was first adopted during Napoleon Bonaparte's reorganization of the {{Lang|fr|Institut de France|italic=no}}. It consists of a long black coat and black-feathered [[bicorne]],<ref name=uniform/> both richly embroidered with green leafy motifs, together with black trousers or skirt. Further, members other than [[clergy]] carry a [[ceremonial sword]] ({{lang|fr|l'épée}}).<ref name=uniform/>

The members bear the cost of their uniforms themselves. The robes cost around $50,000, and [[Amin Maalouf]] said that his induction cost him some $230,000 overall.<ref name="NYT 3 March 2019">{{cite news |last1=Nossiter |first1=Adam |title=The Guardians of the French Language Are Deadlocked, Just Like Their Country |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/03/world/europe/academie-francaise-france-deadlock.html |access-date=4 March 2019 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=3 March 2019}}</ref>  The swords can be particularly expensive as they are individually designed.  Some new members have had funds for them raised by committees.<ref>[https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2018/09/academie-francaise-members-france Meet the Cultural Illuminati Guarding France’s Most Sacrosanct Asset: The French Language]</ref>