Jean Malaquais (1908 – December 22, 1998) was a French novelist. He was born as Wladimir Jan Pavel Malacki in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

in 1908 of a non-religious Polish family of Jewish descent. In 1926, he left Poland, traveling in Eastern Europe and the Middle East; he wrote: "I had the feeling that the end of the world was approaching in Poland, so I wanted to discover the life of other lands before it disappeared entirely. Morally and intellectually I was a tramp, a companion of the dispossessed." He settled in France, where he worked as a laborer, and adopted the name of Jean Malaquais (which he took from the Quai Malaquais).Louis Menand, "It Took a Village," ''The New Yorker'', January 5, 2009, p. 37. He was associated with, though not formally a member of, several French leftist organizations, including the

Trotskyist Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a ...

Communist League, and during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...

he joined the Republican forces as a member of the militia columns of the left Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (

POUM The Workers' Party of Marxist Unification ( es, Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista, POUM; ca, Partit Obrer d'Unificació Marxista) was a Spanish communist party formed during the Second Republic and mainly active around the Spanish Civil ...

). He obtained the

Prix Renaudot The Prix Théophraste-Renaudot or Prix Renaudot () is a French literary award. History The prize was created in 1926 by ten art critics awaiting the results of deliberation of the jury of the Prix Goncourt. While not officially related to the ...

in 1939 for his novel ''Les Javanais'', based on his experience as an immigrant mine worker in

Provence Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bor ...

; it was admired by

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 ...

, who made Malaquais his private secretary. At the beginning of World War II, he was conscripted into the French army, though not a French citizen. He was captured by the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...

, but managed to escape, and fled to southern France. In 1943, he succeeded in leaving France with the assistance of

Varian Fry Varian Mackey Fry (October 15, 1907 – September 13, 1967) was an American journalist. Fry ran a rescue network in Vichy France that helped approximately 2,000 to 4,000 anti-Nazi and Jewish refugees to escape Nazi Germany and the Holocaust ...

and the Emergency Rescue Committee bound for Mexico, and, eventually the United States, where he became a naturalised citizen; his parents died in

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

concentration camps Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...

. He returned to France in 1947, but left again for the United States in 1948. (Beginning in 1942 and continuing after the war, he was a member of the

Left Communist Left communism, or the communist left, is a position held by the left wing of communism, which criticises the political ideas and practices espoused by Marxist–Leninists and social democrats. Left communists assert positions which they rega ...

group ''Gauche communiste de France''; in the United States, he was loosely affiliated with a number of non-Communist left groups.) His most famous work, about an international group of exiles in

Vichy France Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its te ...

, was ''Planète sans visa'' (1947), which has been translated into many languages.

Major works

*''Les Javanais'',

Éditions Denoël Éditions Denoël is a French publishing house founded in 1930. Acquired by Éditions Gallimard in 1951, it publishes collections spanning fiction, non-fiction and comic books. It published some of the most important French authors of the interwar ...

, Paris (1939); translated as The Men From Java (1941) * ''Journal de guerre'', Éditions de la maison française, New York, 1943 * "Deux nouvelles de Jean Malaquais", in ''Les œuvres nouvelles 2'', Éditions de la maison française, New York, 1943. *''Coups de barre'', récits, Éditions de la maison française, New York, 1944. *''Planète sans visa'', Le pré aux clercs, Paris (1947); translated as World Without Visa (1949). *''Le Gaffeur'', Buchet/Chastel, Paris (1953); translated as The Joker (1953). *''Søren Kierkegaard: Foi et Paradoxe'', 10/18, UGE, Paris, 1971. * "Le Nommé Louis Aragon ou le patriote professionnel", ''Masses'', février 1947, repr. in ''Les archipels du surréalisme'', Éditions Syllepse, 1998. *''Correspondance'' (1935–1950) by André Gide and Jean Malaquais,

Éditions Phébus The éditions Phébus is a French publishing house established in 1976 by Jean-Pierre Sicre and taken over in 2003 by the . Catalogue Phébus publishes a catalog of French and foreign literature that is both contemporary (Julie Otsuka, Elif Sha ...

, Paris, 2000.

Translations

* ''Les Nus et les morts'', tr. of Norman Mailer, ''

The Naked and the Dead ''The Naked and the Dead'' is a novel written by Norman Mailer. Published by Rinehart & Company in 1948, when he was 25, it was his debut novel. It depicts the experiences of a platoon during World War II, based partially on Mailer's experiences ...

''. * ''Occultisme, sorcellerie et modes culturelles'', tr. of

Mircea Eliade Mircea Eliade (; – April 22, 1986) was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who established paradigms in religiou ...

, ''Ocultism, witchcraft and cultural fashions''.

References

External links

Jean Malaquais obituary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Malaquais, Jean 1908 births 1998 deaths 20th-century pseudonymous writers 20th-century French writers 20th-century Polish writers 20th-century American writers 20th-century French translators English–French translators Left communists French military personnel of World War II Prix Renaudot winners Writers from Warsaw