Pierre Assouline (born 17 April 1953) is a French writer and journalist. He was born in
Casablanca
Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...
,
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...
to a Jewish family. He has published several novels and
biographies
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or c ...
, and also contributes articles for the print media and broadcasts for radio.
As a biographer, he has covered a diverse and eclectic range of subjects, including:
*
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson (; 22 August 1908 – 3 August 2004) was a French humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 35mm film. He pioneered the genre of street photography, and viewed photography as cap ...
, the legendary photographer
*
Marcel Dassault
Marcel Dassault (born Marcel Ferdinand Bloch; 23 January 1892 – 17 April 1986) was a French engineer and industrialist who spent his career in aircraft manufacturing.
Early life and education
Born on 23 January 1892 in Paris, he was the young ...
, the aeronautics pioneer
*
Gaston Gallimard
Gaston Gallimard (; 18 January 1881 – 25 December 1975) was a French publisher.
He founded ''La Nouvelle Revue Française'' in 1908, together with André Gide and Jean Schlumberger.
In 1911 the trio established La Nouvelle Revue Française. I ...
, the publisher
*
Hergé
Georges Prosper Remi (; 22 May 1907 – 3 March 1983), known by the pen name Hergé (; ), from the French pronunciation of his reversed initials ''RG'', was a Belgian cartoonist. He is best known for creating ''The Adventures of Tintin'', ...
, the creator of ''
The Adventures of Tintin
''The Adventures of Tintin'' (french: Les Aventures de Tintin ) is a series of 24 bande dessinée#Formats, ''bande dessinée'' albums created by Belgians, Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, who wrote under the pen name Hergé. The series was one ...
''
*
Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, the art dealer
*
Georges Simenon
Georges Joseph Christian Simenon (; 13 February 1903 – 4 September 1989) was a Belgian writer. He published nearly 500 novels and numerous short works, and was the creator of the fictional detective Jules Maigret.
Early life and education ...
, the detective novelist and creator of
Inspector Maigret
Several of these books have been translated into English and the Henri Cartier-Bresson biography has been translated into Chinese.
As a journalist, Assouline has worked for the leading French publications ''
Lire'' and ''
Le Nouvel Observateur
(), previously known as (1964–2014), is a weekly French news magazine. Based in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris, it is the most prominent French general information magazine in terms of audience and circulation. Its current editor is Cécil ...
''. He also publishes a blog, "La république des livres".
;Wikipedia
Assouline was the editor of
La Révolution Wikipédia
''La Révolution Wikipédia'' ( en, italic=yes, The Wikipedia Revolution), published in France in 2007, is a multi-authored study of Wikipedia focusing on the online encyclopedia's reliability and its likely influence on printed reference books. ...
, a collection of essays by postgraduate journalism students under his supervision. Assouline contributed the preface.
On 7 January 2007, Assouline published a blog post criticizing the Wikipedia entry on the
Dreyfus Affair
The Dreyfus affair (french: affaire Dreyfus, ) was a political scandal that divided the French Third Republic from 1894 until its resolution in 1906. "L'Affaire", as it is known in French, has come to symbolise modern injustice in the Francop ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Assouline, Pierre
1953 births
Living people
People from Casablanca
French biographers
French bloggers
20th-century French Sephardi Jews
20th-century Moroccan Jews
Prix des libraires winners
Prix Maison de la Presse winners
French literary critics
Lycée Janson-de-Sailly alumni
20th-century French journalists
21st-century French journalists
Academic staff of Sciences Po
20th-century French writers
20th-century French male writers
21st-century French writers
French male non-fiction writers
Male bloggers
Jewish journalists
Jewish non-fiction writers
Male biographers
Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales alumni