Jean-Louis Bory

Jean-Louis Bory at the age of 70

Jean-Louis Bory (born June 25, 1919 in Méréville , Essonne department , † June 11, 1979 ibid) was a French writer and film critic.

Live and act

Bory came from a family of teachers, his father was a pharmacist and teacher, his mother taught at the Lycée of Méréville. After finishing school in Étampes , he went to Paris to the Lycée Henri IV ( 5th arrondissement ).

When Bory wanted to change to the École normal supérieure (ENS) in 1939 , he was called to the military. In October 1942 he was able to return to Paris and he settled in the Latin Quarter . There he received his agrégation in July 1945 and in the same year he was appointed as a lecturer at the Lycée von Haguenau ( Département Bas-Rhin ).

At the same time, he was also able to successfully debut his first novel. Through this success, Bory was able to acquire the manor in his hometown - known as "Villa Iris" - from his grandparents; With the purchase, Bory changed the name to "La Calife". During these years Bory was close to the Mouvement de la paix and the Association France-URSS . Louis Aragon tried, albeit in vain, to win Bory for the Parti communiste français .

In 1950 Bory was transferred to Paris at his own request. He taught there at the Lycée Voltaire ( 11th arrondissement ). From 1952 he began to publish regularly in the Samedi Soir . Three years later, he and his colleague François Erval moved to L'Express , the mouthpiece of Pierre Mendès France .

When the uprising broke out in Hungary in 1956 , Bory turned away from communism . On November 8, 1956, he and Jean-Marie Domenach , Edgar Morin and others signed a petition in the France Observateur . From 1957 he also taught at the Lycée Henri IV. Still interested and active in politics, he was also one of the signatories of the 121st manifesto in 1960 . For this engagement he was suspended for a few months.

In 1957, Bory joined the editorial staff of the Cahiers des saisons and the following year he gave up his teaching career and devoted himself exclusively to writing. In January 1965, Guy Dumur from the Nouvel Observateur brought Bory to the editorial office. In his first essays, Bory stood up for Louis-Ferdinand Celine and tried to rehabilitate him.

From the summer of 1977, Bory suffered from depression . He published less and less and retired to Méréville. On the night of 11 to 12 June 1979 Jean-Louis Bory committed in his house suicide .

Honors

• 1945 Prix ​​Goncourt for Mon village à l'heure allemande .

Works

Novels

• Mon village à l'heure allemande . J'ai lu, Paris 2010, ISBN 978-2-290-02182-8 (EA Paris 1945).
• Chère Aglaë . Flammarion, Paris 1947.
• Fragile ou le panier d'œufs . Flammarion, Paris 1950.
• Un noël à la tyrolienne . Horay, Paris 1952.
• L'odeur de l'herbe . Julliard, Paris 1962.
• L peau des zèbres . Gallimard, Paris 1969/76.

1. La peau des zèbres . 1969.
2. Tous nés d'une femme . 1976.

• Le pied. Roman-feuilleton inconoclaste éclaté . Belfond, Paris 1977, ISBN 2-7144-1083-9 .
• Un prix d'excellence . Gallimard, Paris 1986, ISBN 2-07-070642-7 .

Essays

• Pour Balzac et quelques autres . Julliard, Paris 1960.
• Eugène Sue . Dandy et socialiste . Hachette, Paris 1962.
• The revolution de juillet . Gallimard, Paris 1972.
• Ma moitié d'orange . H & O, Béziers 2005, ISBN 2-84547-110-6 (preface by Dominique Fernandez , EA Paris 1973).

Non-fiction

• Cinéma . Editions 10/18, Paris 1971/77

1. Des yeux pour voir. 1961-1966 . 1971
2. La nuit complice. 1966-1968 . 1972.
3. Ombre vive. 1969 . 1973.
4. L'écran fertile. January 1970 – June 1971 . 1974.
5. La lumière écrit. May 1971 – December 1972 . 1975
6. L'obstacle et la gerbe. Janvier 1973 – Décembre 1974 . 1976.
7. Rectangle multiple. 1975-1976 . 1977.

literature

• Daniel Garcia: Jean-Louis Bory 1919-1979 . Flammarion, Paris 2009, ISBN 978-2-08-066393-1 (EA Paris 1991)
• Daniel Garcia, Janine Marc-Pezet: C'était Bory . Éditions Cartouche, Paris 2011, ISBN 978-2-915842-81-4 .
• Marie-Claude Jardin: Jean-Louis Bory . Éditions Belfond, Paris 1991, ISBN 2-7144-2568-2 .