Georgette Elgey (24 February 1929 – 8 October 2019) was a French journalist and historian. She was the author of ''Histoire de la IVe République'' ("History of the
Fourth Republic"), published in 6 volumes from 1965 to 2012.
Biography
In her autobiography ''Toutes fenêtres ouvertes'' ("All Windows Open", 2017), Georgette Elgey wrote extensively about what she called "one of the last major upper-class scandals of the
French Third Republic
The French Third Republic (french: Troisième République, sometimes written as ) was the system of government adopted in France from 4 September 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed during the Franco-Prussian War, until 10 July 1940 ...
": her birth out of wedlock. Her father
Georges Lacour-Gayet
Georges Lacour-Gayet (31 May 1856 – 8 December 1935) was a French historian who taught at the École Navale and the École Polytechnique.
His books on the French navy under Louis XV and Louis XVI are much-quoted and were considered references wh ...
was an eminent historian, member of the
Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, who was, at the time of her birth, 72 years old and a widower. Her mother Madeleine Léon, then in her mid-twenties, belonged to the Jewish upper-class – she was the great-granddaughter of
Michel Lévy
Michel Lévy (1821–1875) was the founder of the Michel Lévy Frères publishing house.
Biography
Born in Phalsbourg, he was the son of a '' colporteur'' (a peddler of printed publications).
In 1836, aged fifteen, he opened a reading cab ...
, France's first Jewish general. After Lacour-Gayet refused to marry her, Léon fought for years for Georgette to be officially recognised as his daughter, eventually losing in court but leaving the old man's reputation in shatters.
From her father's marriage, she had three half-siblings
Jacques
Ancient and noble French family names, Jacques, Jacq, or James are believed to originate from the Middle Ages in the historic northwest Brittany region in France, and have since spread around the world over the centuries. To date, there are over ...
, Thérèse and
Robert Lacour-Gayet, who were considerably older than she. Robert also later became a historian.
Madeleine Léon was a convert to Roman Catholicism and Elgey was baptised as a child; yet, because of their Jewish roots, mother and daughter had to flee Paris and live in hiding during the occupation of France by Nazi Germany. After the war, Elgey studied stenography and worked as a secretary at a school of journalism. She started attending the school's classes and, although she never graduated, she caught the attention of the school's director Jacques Kayser, who introduced her to the historian
Robert Aron
Robert Aron (1898–1975) was a French historian and writer who wrote a number of books on politics and European history.
Early life and career
Robert Aron was born in Le Vésinet on 25 May 1898 to an upper-class Jewish family from eastern France ...
. Through Aron, Elgey landed her first journalist assignments at ''La NEF'', a magazine he directed alongside
Lucie Faure
Lucie Faure, ''née'' Meyer (6 July 1908 – 25 September 1977) was a French woman of letters, novelist and literary review director.
Early life
The daughter of a merchant of fabrics of Alsatian origin, she was the niece, on the maternal sid ...
. It was then she chose the nom-de-plume Georgette Elgey, from the French pronunciation of her father's initials, L.G.
Elgey also made her first steps as a historian thanks to Aron, whom she assisted in the writing of his ''Histoire de Vichy'' ("History of
Vichy
Vichy (, ; ; oc, Vichèi, link=no, ) is a city in the Allier Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of central France, in the historic province of Bourbonnais.
It is a Spa town, spa and resort town and in World ...
"), published in 1954. She worked as a journalist at ''
L'Express
''L'Express'' () is a French weekly news magazine headquartered in Paris. The weekly stands at the political centre in the French media landscape, and has a lifestyle supplement, ''L'Express Styles'', and a job supplement, ''Réussir''.
History ...
'' and ''
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 ...
'' and was editor-in-chief at ''Le Nouveau Candide'', a magazine she helped launch in 1961.
She however quit journalism in 1962 because, in her own words, she could not be "true to herself" in a line of work that required "too many compromises".
On the advice of
Roger Stéphane
Roger Stéphane (19 August 1919 - 4 December 1994) was the name used by the French writer, Roger Worms. He originally selected it in September 1941 when he joined the "Combat" Resistance group. After the Liberation he became a literary critic, ...
, she then started working on what was to become her magnum opus, a history of the
French Fourth Republic
The French Fourth Republic (french: Quatrième république française) was the Republicanism, republican government of France from 27 October 1946 to 4 October 1958, governed by the fourth republican constitution. It was in many ways a revival of ...
adequately titled ''Histoire de la IVe République''. Published in the 1960s, the first two volumes were well received, with praise directed at Elgey's innovative use of oral testimonies in her historical research. ''Histoire de la IVe République'' took almost 50 years to complete, with the sixth and final volume published in 2012.
In the 1970s, Elgey also worked as a senior editor for her publisher,
Fayard
Fayard (complete name: ''Librairie Arthème Fayard'') is a French Paris-based publishing house established in 1857. Fayard is controlled by Hachette Livre.
In 1999, Éditions Pauvert became part of Fayard. Claude Durand was director of Fayard ...
, and after
François Mitterrand
François Marie Adrien Maurice Mitterrand (26 October 19168 January 1996) was President of France, serving under that position from 1981 to 1995, the longest time in office in the history of France. As First Secretary of the Socialist Party, he ...
was elected President of France in 1981, she joined his team as a technical adviser, in charge of the presidency's archives. From 2007 to 2016, she headed France's ''Conseil supérieur des archives'' ("Higher Archives Council").
She was made Commander of the
Legion of Honour
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon, ...
in 2009.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elgey, Georgette
2019 deaths
1929 births
French women journalists
French women historians
Commanders of the Legion of Honour
French people of Jewish descent
Jewish historians
20th-century French historians
21st-century French historians
20th-century French journalists
20th-century French women writers
21st-century French women writers