Pierre Bénard (17 November 1898 – 23 December 1946) was a French

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

. Bénard was born in 1898; his father was clerk to an attorney. He began as a journalist in the 1920s, for ''

L'Œuvre ''L'Œuvre'' is the fourteenth novel in the '' Rougon-Macquart'' series by Émile Zola. It was first serialized in the periodical ''Gil Blas'' beginning in December 1885 before being published in novel form by Charpentier in 1886. The title, t ...

'', where he held the judicial brief, and for ''Bonsoir''. He was the author of upbeat novels and of many prefaces for works on contemporary law, at the same time doing large-scale reportages for various weekly publications including ''Gringoire (newspaper), Gringoire'' (from which he distanced himself in 1934). He joined ''Le Canard enchaîné'' in 1923, and became editor-in-chief there in 1936. During this period he was opposed to Jean Galtier-Boissière, on the issue of French military intervention in Spain. During the Second World War, he participated in the beginning of 1944 in the underground paper of ''Défense de la France''. He also wrote in ''Combat (French newspaper), Combat'' and in the clandestine ''Les Lettres Françaises, Lettres françaises''; his articles were unsigned but written in a characteristic style, identifiable by his puns, witticisms and incessant carriage returns. After the liberation of France Bénard went back to editing weekly papers, but died shortly after on 22 December 1946. He was married to Geneviève Antoine, herself a journalist at ''Bonsoir'', with whom he had a daughter.

References

1898 births 1946 deaths French male non-fiction writers 20th-century French journalists 20th-century French male writers {{France-journalist-stub