Roger Vercel (born Roger Cretin; 8 January 1894, in Le Mans – 26 February 1957, in Dinan) was a French writer.
Vercel was fascinated by the sea and marine life. Although he virtually never went to sea, most of his novels featured a maritime setting.
World War I interrupted his studies of letters. Early in the war his poor eyesight left him a stretcher-bearer on the battlefields of northern and eastern France. Because of a shortage of army officers, he returned to Saint-Cyr. He ended the war on the eastern front, and was discharged a year after the Armistice.
He returned to Dinan, where in 1921 he was appointed professor at the College of Letters. He earned a doctorate in letters in 1927, with a thesis entitled: "The images in the work of Corneille". The Académie française awarded it the Saintour prize of literary history. Dinan extinguished it in 1957.[clarification needed]
His war memories inspired some of his earlier books: Our Father Trajan, Captain Conan, Lena, but the maritime world makes up the heart of his work. Off Eden earned him the Prix Femina from the France-America Committee in 1932. He won the Prix Goncourt in 1934 for Capitaine Conan.
Several of his works were brought to the screen:
