Louis Martin-Chauffier, real name Louis Martin, (24 August 1894,

Vannes Vannes (; br, Gwened) is a commune in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France. It was founded over 2,000 years ago. History Celtic Era The name ''Vannes'' comes from the Veneti, a seafaring Celtic people who live ...

– 6 October 1980, Puteaux) was a 20th-century French journalist and writer and a member of the

French Resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

Biography

Education

Louis Martin-Chauffier started medical studies and, after his father's death, passed the

École nationale des chartes The École Nationale des Chartes (, literally National School of Charters) is a French ''grande école'' and a constituent college of Université PSL, specialising in the historical sciences. It was founded in 1821, and was located initially at ...

entry competition, where he was received in 1915. During the First World War, however, he was mobilized as an auxiliary doctor. He resumed his studies in 1919 and became an archivist-palaeographer in 1921, the year of his marriage with Simone Duval (1902–1975), translator and novelist. He was then appointed librarian at the

bibliothèque Mazarine The Bibliothèque Mazarine, or Mazarin Library, is located within the Palais de l'institut de France, or the Palace of the Institute of France (previously the Collège des Quatre-Nations of the University of Paris), at 23 quai de Conti in the 6 ...

, then at

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

(1923–1927).

Interwar period

In 1922, he published his first novel, ''La Fissure''. During the 1920s, Louis Martin-Chauffier wrote four novels before abandoning this genre, which he did not return to until 1950. He also collaborated with the publishing house , where he published avant-garde authors such as

Blaise Cendrars Frédéric-Louis Sauser (1 September 1887 – 21 January 1961), better known as Blaise Cendrars, was a Swiss-born novelist and poet who became a naturalized French citizen in 1916. He was a writer of considerable influence in the European mo ...

, writing a presentation to

Philippe Soupault Philippe Soupault (2 August 1897 – 12 March 1990) was a French writer and poet, novelist, critic, and political activist. He was active in Dadaism and later was instrumental in founding the Surrealist movement with André Breton. Soupault in ...

as an appendix to ''Histoire d'un Blanc'', or signing the preface of ''Aspects de la biographie'' by André Maurois. He also realized translations of classics (

Aristophanes Aristophanes (; grc, Ἀριστοφάνης, ; c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion ( la, Cydathenaeum), was a comic playwright or comedy-writer of ancient Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy. Eleven of his for ...

Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian people, Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', origin ...

, etc.) for illustrated luxury editions; In the 1930s, he began the first edition of the complete works of

André Gide André Paul Guillaume Gide (; 22 November 1869 – 19 February 1951) was a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (in 1947). Gide's career ranged from its beginnings in the symbolist movement, to the advent of anticolonialism ...

(1932–1939) and worked for more than fifteen years on a study devoted to Chateaubriand, published in 1943 under the title ''Chateaubriand ou l'obsession de la pureté''. He also had a journalist activity: while being a librarian, he gave articles to various magazines, in particular to ''

La Revue critique des idées et des livres La Revue critique des idées et des livres was a French journal of political and literary criticism from 1908 to 1924. It was established by Jean Rivain and Eugène Marsan. It was influenced by the ideas of the Action Française. From 1908 Lucien ...

'', close to the ''

Action française Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

'', then became a religious chronicler'' for

Le Figaro ''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French newspapers of r ...

''. Thereafter, he was editor-in-chief of various clearly left oriented weeklies, such as ''Lu,' ' Vu'' or ''Vendredi''. In 1938, he became literary director of ''Match'' and editorialist in '' Paris-Soir''.

Second World War

In 1940, he went to the

Zone libre The ''zone libre'' (, ''free zone'') was a partition of the French metropolitan territory during World War II, established at the Second Armistice at Compiègne on 22 June 1940. It lay to the south of the demarcation line and was administered b ...

with the team of his newspaper. He entered the Resistance, becoming editor-in-chief of one of the most important clandestine newspapers, ''Libération'' in 1942. In May, he was arrested by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

and taken to the prison at Fort-Montluc; then in April 1944 he was transported to German concentration camps, first to Neuengamme and then to

Bergen-Belsen Bergen-Belsen , or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concentrati ...

At the Liberation of France, he was a delegate to the

Provisional Consultative Assembly The Provisional Consultative Assembly (french: Assemblée consultative provisoire) was a governmental organ of Free France that operated under the aegis of the French Committee of National Liberation (CFLN) and that represented the resist ...

(July–August 1945) representing prisoners and deported, then continued his career as a journalist and continued to support the newspaper issue of clandestinity: he was the literary director of 'Libération'', the daily directed by

Emmanuel d'Astier de la Vigerie Emmanuel d'Astier de La Vigerie (6 January 190012 June 1969) was a French journalist, politician and member of the French Resistance. Biography Born in Paris, he attended the Naval Academy but resigned from the French Navy in 1923. He became a ...

Post-war

He then worked for various daily and weekly newspapers: head of the foreign service of '' Le Parisien libéré'', a literary columnist at ''

Paris-Presse ''Paris-Presse'' was a French newspaper published in Paris between 1944 and 1970. It was created by Philippe Barres (1896-1975), with Ève Curie (1904-2007), daughter of Marie Curie. They ran the newspaper until 1949.Claude Bellanger, ''Histoire ...

'' et à ''

Paris Match ''Paris Match'' () is a French-language weekly news magazine. It covers major national and international news along with celebrity lifestyle features. History and profile A sports news magazine, ''Match l'intran'' (a play on '' L'Intransigeant ...

'', editor of '' Fémina-Illustration ''. His work as a novelist and his work in favor of contemporary literature did not make him forget the great classics: he is the publisher of the complete works of La Rochefoucauld in the

bibliothèque de la Pléiade The ''Bibliothèque de la Pléiade'' (, "Pleiades Library") is a French editorial collection which was created in 1931 by Jacques Schiffrin, an independent young editor. Schiffrin wanted to provide the public with reference editions of the c ...

. He also engaged as a former resistant and deported and in the 1950s was one of the targets of the (verbal) attacks of the Holocaust deniers or revisionists of the time (

Paul Rassinier Paul Rassinier (18 March 1906 – 28 July 1967) was a political activist and writer who is viewed as "the father of Holocaust denial". Totten, Samuel; Bartrop, Paul Robert; Jacobs, Steven L. "Rassinier, Paul", ''Dictionary of Genocide'', Vo ...

, ,

Maurice Bardèche Maurice Bardèche (1 October 1907 – 30 July 1998) was a French art critic and journalist, better known as one of the leading exponents of neo-fascism in post–World War II Europe. Bardèche was also the brother-in-law of the collaborationist ...

). In 1952, he intervened in ''

Le Figaro littéraire ''Le Figaro Magazine'' is a French language weekly news magazine published in Paris, France. The magazine is the weekly supplement of the daily newspaper ''Le Figaro''. History and profile The magazine is the first supplement of ''Le Figaro'' ...

'' to answer

Jean Paulhan Jean Paulhan (2 December 1884 – 9 October 1968) was a French writer, literary critic and publisher, director of the literary magazine ''Nouvelle Revue Française'' (NRF) from 1925 to 1940 and from 1946 to 1968. He was a member (Seat 6, 1963–68 ...

's pamphlet, ''Lettre aux directeurs de la Résistance''. During the Algerian war, he actively participated in a "Commission internationale sur le système concentrationnaire" (International Commission on the Concentration System), which, in 1957 (the time of the Battle of Algiers), conducted an investigation into the repressive system established by the French army.Cf. for ex. ''

L'Humanité ''L'Humanité'' (; ), is a French daily newspaper. It was previously an organ of the French Communist Party, and maintains links to the party. Its slogan is "In an ideal world, ''L'Humanité'' would not exist." History and profile Pre-World Wa ...

'', 17 August 1957, and 24 August, .

Distinctions

*1947: Grand prix de littérature de la SGDL for his entire work. *1957:

Grand prix national des Lettres The grand prix national des Lettres was created in 1950 by the French Ministry of Culture to recognize writers who have contributed to the influence of French literature. It has not been awarded since 1999. List of laureates * 1951: Émile Char ...

(ministère de la Culture) for his contribution to the influence of French literature. *1962:

Prix Breizh The prix Breizh is a French literary award bestowed under this name since 2001, on the initiative of Gwenn-Aël Bolloré. On that date, it succeeded the "Prix Bretagne" created in 1961. It crowns each year an author of Breton origin or friend of Br ...

for his entire work. He was elected a member of the

Académie des sciences morales et politiques An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...

in 1964.

Main works

*1921: ''L’Affaire des évêques simoniaques bretons et l’érection de Dol en métropole (848–850)'', thesis of the École des chartes *1923: ''Correspondances apocryphes, Mme de Vandeul et Diderot, Choderlos de Laclos, Flaubert, Barbey d'Aurevilly, Marcel Proust, Anatole France...'' (preface by Pierre Benoit) *1923: ''La Fissure'', novel *1924: ''Patrice, ou l’indifférent'', novel *1925: ''L’Épervier'', novel *1927: ''L’Amant des honnêtes femmes'', novel *1927: ''Jeux de l’âme'', novel *1930: ''La Paix'' by Aristophanes, translation *1930: ''L’Enfer'' de Dante, translation *1932–1939: Œuvres complètes d’André Gide, edition *1943: ''Chateaubriand ou l’obsession de la pureté'' *1947: ''L’homme et la bête'', essay *1950: ''Mon père n’est pas mort'', novel *1958: ''L’Écrivain et la liberté'', essay *1964: Œuvres complètes de La Rochefoucauld, edition *1989: ''Chroniques d’un homme libre''

Bibliography

* Jean Imbert, « Louis Martin-Chauffier », in ''

Bibliothèque de l'École des chartes The ''Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes'' is a journal dedicated to the study and use of medieval manuscripts. It was founded in 1839 and continues to provide bi-annual issues with articles and abstracts in French, English, and German. Star ...

'', 1982, n°140-142,

References

External links

''La libération de Louis Martin-Chauffier''
on Reseau-canope.fr
Louis Martin-Chauffier: ''L’Homme et la bête''
review
''Autour de la Lettre aux directeurs de la Résistance de Jean Paulhan''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Martin-Chauffier, Louis 1894 births 1980 deaths Writers from Vannes Members of the Provisional Consultative Assembly 20th-century French writers French librarians French literary critics 20th-century French journalists Le Figaro people École Nationale des Chartes alumni Members of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques French Resistance members Neuengamme concentration camp survivors Recipients of the Resistance Medal