Pierre Veber

Pierre-Eugène Veber (15 May 1869 – 20 August 1942) was a French playwright and writer. Pierre Veber was the brother of the painter Jean Veber, and the brother-in-law of both René Doumic and Tristan Bernard. His family was quite large, as he himself points out in the preface to the book X… Roman Impromptu: "If seventy cities vie for the honour of having given birth to me, it's not because I'm ten times more famous than Homer, but simply because the name I bear is more common." At the time, there were several authors and scriptwriters with the same surname, such as Jean-Pierre Veber and Serge Veber; with whom Pierre worked from time to time.

Pierre Veber is the father of journalist and author Pierre-Gilles Veber, and of screenwriter Serge Veber. He is also the grandfather of screenwriter and film director Francis Veber, and the great-grandfather of author Sophie Audouin-Mamikonian.

Little is known about his youth. He himself explained: "My studies were quite limited, of which I am not proud." By 1889, his work had already been published in the literary periodical Gil Blas, as André Antoine says in his journal entry from 25: "This evening, Rue Blanche, we are being visited by two newcomers, Tristan Bernard and Pierre Veber, two young journalists of great intellect who, each week, write for Gil Blas, a news magazine illustrated by Jean Veber." In 1892, Pierre Veber contributed to the magazine Le Chasseur de Chevelures (The Hunter of Locks), under the guidance of Tristan Bernard. This humorous newspaper had only two issues, in 1892 and 1893, and in the latter year Pierre Veber was credited as co-author in the statement: "Tristan Bernard: honest editor; Pierre Veber: corrupt editor."

Pierre Veber was a prolific writer, who, with a forty-year long career, produced around one hundred slapstick comedies, vaudevilles, opera libretti; and nearly fifty novels and collections of short stories, along with tales both humorous and ironic. Nearly half of his plays were written in collaboration with one or two other authors, to whom he brought his great elegance and ease of writing, which he admitted with humour in the preface to his Théâtre Incomplet: "The theatre is, for a writer, a delightful distraction which allows a break to be taken from writing. We listen to domesticated fools who ramble on; we note down their remarks; we imagine their gestures. And that makes the play."

His frequent playwriting collaboration with Maurice Hennequin, in particular, was in competition with the playwright duo of Robert de Flers and Gaston Arman de Caillavet, a partnership that was very popular at the time. Veber lent a hand to other writers from time to time, such as Alfred Capus, Georges Courteline et Léon Xanrof. His work as a playwright continued almost until the Second World War, when he was nearing the age of seventy.

He also wrote novels in collaboration; a pursuit less common than collaborating in theatre. It was Veber himself who, in 1895, had the idea for X… Roman Impromptu: a novel "without preconceived plan and without a definite subject". It was written by five authors: Georges Courteline, Jules Renard, George Auriol, Tristan Bernard, and Pierre Veber himself. In an order determined by chance, each author wrote a chapter following on from the last one. This meant that the plot changed each chapter, following the whims and imagination of whoever happened to be writing. The only constraint was that the protagonist not die and that no character must change sex. The novel first appeared in serialised form in the literary periodical Gil Blas, from 4 April to 21 May 1895. This 'steeplechase novel' or 'choral novel', renamed 'impromptu novel', was repeatedly published by Flammarion. Veber also wrote some short stories in collaboration with French writer Henry Gauthier-Villars (Willy).

Some of his plays experienced great success, such as Le Monsieur de cinq heures, which was performed 568 times – a considerable number at the time. Some were even later adapted for cinema, while others were translated into English and performed in London and New York City. He sometimes wrote under the pen name Bill Sharp.