Editing Paul Claudel (section)

==Diplomat==
The young Claudel considered entering a monastery, but instead had a career in the French diplomatic service, in which he served from 1893 to 1936.

Claudel was first vice-consul in New York (April 1893),<ref name=":1" /> and later in [[Boston]] (December 1893). He was French [[Consulate general|consul]] in China during the period 1895 to 1909, with time in [[Shanghai]] (June 1895). On a break in 1900, he spent time at  [[Ligugé Abbey]], but his proposed entry to the [[Benedictine Order]] was postponed.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ubersfeld |first1=Anne |title=Paul Claudel, Partage de midi: autobiographie et histoire |date=1999 |publisher=Presses Univ. Franche-Comté |isbn=978-2-913322-48-6 |page=10 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_iVgXjiOYDwC&pg=PA10 |language=fr}}</ref> 

Claudel returned to China as vice-consul in [[Fuzhou]] (October 1900). He had a further break in France in 1905–6, when he married. He was one of a group of writers enjoying the support and patronage of [[Philippe Berthelot]] of the Foreign Ministry, who became a close friend; others were [[Jean Giraudoux]], [[Paul Morand]] and [[Saint-John Perse]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=O'Neil |first1=Mary Anne |title=Twentieth-century French Dramatists |date=2006 |publisher=Thomson Gale |isbn=978-0-7876-8139-5 |page=219|volume=321 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Nelis |first1=Jan |last2=Morelli |first2=Anne |last3=Praet |first3=Danny |title=Catholicism and Fascism in Europe 1918 - 1945 |date=1 May 2015 |publisher=Georg Olms Verlag |isbn=978-3-487-15243-1 |page=184 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YWtmDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA184 |language=en}}</ref> Because of his position in the Diplomatic Service, at the beginning of his career Claudel published either anonymously or under a pseudonym, "since permission to publish was needed from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs".<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Vagianos|first=Sylvia Caides|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uBi199W0tbIC&q=Paul+Claudel&pg=PA51|title=Paul Claudel and La Nouvelle Revue Française (1909-1918)|date=1979|publisher=Librairie Droz|isbn=978-2-600-03573-6|language=en}}</ref><sup>:11</sup> 

For that reason, Claudel remained rather obscure as an author to 1909, unwilling to ask permission to publish under his own name because the permission might not be granted.<ref name=":0" /><sup>:11</sup> In that year, the founding group of the ''[[Nouvelle Revue Française]]'' (NRF), and in particular his friend [[André Gide]], were keen to recognise his work. Claudel sent them, for the first issue, the poem ''Hymne du Sacre-Sacrement'', to fulsome praise from Gide, and it was published under his name. He had not sought permission to publish, and there was a furore in which he was criticised. Attacks based on his religious views were in February also affecting the production of one of his plays.<ref name=":0" /><sup>:15–17</sup> Berthelot's advice was to ignore the critics.<ref name=":0" /><sup>:18 note 42</sup> The affair began a long collaboration of the NRF with Claudel.<ref name=":0" /><sup>:12</sup>

Claudel also wrote extensively about China, with a definitive version of his ''Connaissance de l'Est'' published in 1914 by [[Georges Crès]] and [[Victor Segalen]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hsieh |first1=Yvonne Ying |title=From Occupation to Revolution: China Through the Eyes of Loti, Claudel, Segalen, and Malraux (1895-1933) |date=1996 |publisher=Summa Publications, Inc. |isbn=978-1-883479-13-8 |page=34 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sxrS3LwrMdsC&pg=PA34 |language=en}}</ref> In his final posting to China, he was consul in [[Tianjin]] (1906–1909).

In a series of European postings to the outbreak of [[World War I]], Claudel was in [[Prague]] (December 1909), [[Frankfurt am Main]] (October 1911), and [[Hamburg]] (October 1913). At this period he was interested in the theatre festival at [[Hellerau]], which put on one of his plays, and the ideas of [[Jacques Copeau]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Vagianos |first1=Sylvia Caides |title=Paul Claudel and La Nouvelle Revue Française (1909-1918) |date=1979 |publisher=Librairie Droz |isbn=978-2-600-03573-6 |pages=113–114 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uBi199W0tbIC&pg=PA113 |language=en}}</ref>

Claudel was in Rome (1915–1916), ''ministre plénipotentiaire'' in [[Rio de Janeiro]] (1917–1918), [[Copenhagen]] (1920), ambassador in Tokyo (1921–1927),<ref name=":1" /> Washington, D.C. (1928–1933, Dean of the Diplomatic Corps in 1933)<ref>{{cite news|date=1 March 2013|title=Deans of the Diplomatic Corps|work=[[Bureau of Public Affairs]], [[U.S. Department of State]]|url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/s/cpr/rls/93591.htm|access-date=24 September 2018}}</ref> and [[Brussels]] (1933–1936).<ref name=":1" /> While he served in Brazil during [[World War I]] he supervised the continued provision of food supplies from South America to France. His secretaries during the Brazil mission included [[Darius Milhaud]],  who wrote [[incidental music]] to a number of Claudel's plays.
[[File:Paul Claudel on TIME Magazine, March 21, 1927.jpg|thumb|Cover of ''Time Magazine'' (21 March 1927)]]