Editing Paul Claudel (section)

==Later life==
[[File:08 - Le château de Brangues (38510), propriété de Paul Claudel.jpg|thumb|The château of Brangues, 2009 photograph]]
In 1935 Claudel retired to [[Brangues]] in [[Dauphiné]], where he had bought the [[château]] in 1927. He still spent winters in Paris.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Nichols |first1=Aidan |title=The Poet as Believer: A Theological Study of Paul Claudel |date=28 June 2013 |publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. |isbn=978-1-4094-8148-5 |page=16 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hfqhAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA16 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Werner |first1=Roberta |title=Reaching for God: The Benedictine Oblate Way of Life |date=2013 |publisher=Liturgical Press |isbn=978-0-8146-3551-3 |page=8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aMq-YRcvZ9wC&pg=PA8 |language=en}}</ref>

During [[World War II]] Claudel made his way to [[Algeria]] in 1940, after the [[Battle of France]], and offered to serve [[Free France]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Majault |first1=Joseph |title=Littérature de notre temps |date=1966 |publisher=Casterman |page=88|volume=I |language=fr}}</ref> Not having a response to the offer, he returned to Brangues. He supported the [[Vichy regime]], but disagreed with Cardinal [[Alfred Baudrillart]]'s policy of collaboration with [[Nazi Germany]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Michlin |first1=Gilbert |title=Of No Interest to the Nation: A Jewish Family in France, 1925-1945 |date=17 September 2004 |publisher=Wayne State University Press |isbn=978-0-8143-3848-3 |page=124 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x3pcaWqPOvMC&pg=PA124 |language=en}}</ref>

Close to home, [[Paul-Louis Weiller]], married to Claudel's daughter-in-law's sister, was arrested by the Vichy government in October 1940. Claudel went to Vichy to intercede for him, to no avail; Weiller escaped (with Claudel's assistance, the authorities suspected) and fled to New York. Claudel wrote in December 1941 to [[Isaïe Schwartz]], expressing his opposition to the [[Statut des Juifs]] enacted by the regime.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pryce-Jones |first1=David |title=Betrayal: France, the Arabs, and the Jews (Large Print 16pt) |date=February 2011 |publisher=ReadHowYouWant.com |isbn=978-1-4587-3170-8 |pages=59–60 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EM0BW8P8qM0C&pg=PA5 |language=en}}</ref> The Vichy authorities responded by having Claudel's house searched and keeping him under observation. 

Claudel was elected to the [[Académie française]] on 4 April 1946, replacing [[Louis Gillet]]. It followed a rejection in 1935, considered somewhat scandalous, when [[Claude Farrère]] was preferred.<ref>{{cite web |title=Paul Claudel, Académie française |url=https://www.academie-francaise.fr/les-immortels/paul-claudel |website=www.academie-francaise.fr}}</ref> He was nominated for the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] in six different years.<ref>Nobel Prize.org: "[https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=1831 Paul Claudel (Nomination Database)]".</ref>