Jean Cassou
Jean Cassou (9 July 1897 – 19 January 19860 was a French writer, art critic, poet and member of the French Resistance during World War II.
Biography
Jaen Cassou was born at Deusto, near Bilbao, (Spain). His father was French (with a Mexican mother) and his mother Milagros Ibañez Pacheco was from Andalucia (Spain). His father, who had the prestigious degree Ingénieur des Arts et Manufactures, unfortunately died when Jean was only sixteen. His mother gave Jean and his sister basic Spanish culture, and he learnt French and Spanish classics side by side at school. Jean did secondary studies at the Charlemagne Lycée while providing for the needs of his family, then began study for the Licence d'espagnol (Spanish) degree at the Faculty of Letters in Paris. This he followed in 1917 and 1918 by gettting a Masters degree at the Bayonne Lycée and, though interrupted many times, was not mobilised in World War II. He was Secretary to Pierre Louÿs, writing from 1921 to 1929 his monthly chronicle "Spanish Letters" in the cultural magazine Le Mercure de France (of which he was editor). He became in 1923 the writer for the Ministry of State Education and in 1926 published his first novel.
In 1932 Jean Cassou became an inspector of historic monuments. In 1934 he became a member of the Vigilance Commitee of anit-fascist intellectuals and director from 1936 of the review Europe. In 1936 he was a member of the cabinet of Jean Zay, Minister of State Education and of the Art-schools of the Popular Front. He was then in favour of the Spanish Republic and socialism, and approached the communist party - but broke with then in 1939 at the time of the Germano-Soviet pact. On the approach of the German army, he went to the castle at Compiègne and devoted himself to the safeguard of the national heritage.
Relieved of his post as conservator at the Museum of Modern Art by the Vichy régime, he joined the Resistance in September 1940, writing its first leaflets. Among his friends who shared his views were Claude Aveline and Agnès Humbert and they founded the clandestine group the Groupe du musée de l'Homme, together with Boris Vildé, Anatole Lewitsky and Paul Rivet. With Claude Aveline, Agnès Humbert, Simone Martin-Chauffier and Marcel Abraham, he drafted the group's periodical called Résistance (six numbers between December 1940 and March 1941). When many members of the group were arrested, he escaped the Gestapo and took refuge at Toulouse. He was agent of the "Bertaux group" in August 1941, was arrested in December for his activies at the Musée de l'Homme and imprisoned at [[Furgol] where he composed in his head, there being no possibility of writing anything down, his Thirty-three sonnets composed in secret, which were published in 1944 under the pseudonym of Jean Noir.
Freed after a year in prison, he was sent by the ST to an internment camp at Saint-Sulpice (Tarn). Following a plea from the Resistance to the director of ST, he was released in June 1943 and continued his resistance activity as inspector of the southern zone. He was also editor of the Cahiers de la Libération and President of the National Committee for the Liberation of Toulouse. The provisional governemt of the French Republic named him in June 1944 as Commissioner of the Republic fo the Toulouse Region. In August, at the time of the liberation of the town, his car met a German column: two of his companions were killed and he was left for dead. Taken to hospital in a coma, his job was replaced, but he kept the title, but resigned after convalescing for a year.
In 1945 Jean Cassou regained his post as Chief of Conservation at the national museums, a post he kept until 1965. In 1971 he received the Grand Prix national des Lettres and in 1983 the grand Prix de la Sociéte des Gens de Lettres for the whole of his work. He died on 18 January 1986 and is buried in the cemetery at Thiais in Paris. He was a militant activist for the Peace Movement and brother-in-law of the philosopher Vladimir Jankélévitch.
References
Works
Éloge de la Folie, 1925
Les Harmonies viennoises, novel, Paris, Émile Paul, 1926
La Clef des songes, novel, 1928
La vie de Philippe II. Paris. Gallimard. 1929. 12. Ed. (Orig. 1927. Vies des hommes, illustrated. Nr. 29 )
Panorama de la littérature espagnole contemporaine, Paris, Kra, 1929 (later edition 1931)
Comme une grande image, novel. Editions Emile-Paul frères, 1931
Les Nuits de Musset, essay, Paris, Émile Paul, 1931
Grandeur et infamie de Tolstoï, essay, Paris, Bernard Grasset, 1932
Les Inconnus dans la cave, novel, Paris, Gallimard, 1933
Les Massacres de Paris, novel, Paris, Gallimard, 1935
Pour la poésie, essay, Paris, Corréa, 1935
Tempête sur l'Espagne, Paris, L'Homme réel, 1936
La Querelle du réalisme, Paris, ESI, 1936
Cervantes, Paris, ESI, 1936
Légion, Paris, Gallimard, 1939
Quarante-huit, essay, Paris, Gallimard, 1939
Trente-trois sonnets composés au secret, Paris, Éditions de Minuit, 1944; repub. Poésie/Gallimard, 1995
Le Centre du monde, novel, Paris, Le Sagittaire, 1945
L'heure du choix (collection), Paris, Éditions de Minuit, 1947
Le quarante-huitard, Paris, PUF, 1948
Situation de l'Art Moderne, Paris, Éditions de Minuit, 1950
La Voie Libre, Paris, Flammarion, 1951
La Mémoire courte, essay, Paris, Éditions de Minuit, 1954; repub. Mille et une Nuits, 2001
Panorama des Arts Plastiques contemporains, Paris, Gallimard, 1960
Parti pris, essay, Paris, Albin Michel, 1961
Dernières pensées d'un amoureux, novel, Paris, Albin Michel, 1962
Le Voisinage des cavernes, novel, Paris, Albin Michel, 1971
La Création des mondes, essay, Paris, Éditions Ouvrières, 1971
Une Vie pour la liberté, essay, Paris, Robert Laffont, 1981
La Rose et le vin
La folie d'Amadis
Translations and adaptations
L'Agonie du christianisme, translated from an essay by Miguel de Unamuno, Paris, F. Rieder, 1925
Font au Cabres, dramatic fresco in three acts by Lope de Vega, Paris, Les Ordres de Chevalerie, 1949, with Jean Camp, lithographs by Carlos Fontsere