Émile Masson (28 July 1869–8 February 1923) was a Breton writer and thinker. He also used the pseudonyms Brenn, Ewan Gweznou, and Ion Prigent.

Biography

Born in Brest, he was not brought up speaking

Breton Breton most often refers to: *anything associated with Brittany, and generally **Breton people **Breton language, a Southwestern Brittonic Celtic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken in Brittany ** Breton (horse), a breed **Gale ...

, but acquired the language in later life. He received two degrees (philosophy and English) and moved to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. He was associated with several radical movements of the period: the dreyfusards,

anarchism Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

, collectivism, antimilitarism. At this time he befriended

Élisée Reclus Jacques Élisée Reclus (; 15 March 18304 July 1905) was a French geographer, writer and anarchist. He produced his 19-volume masterwork, ''La Nouvelle Géographie universelle, la terre et les hommes'' ("Universal Geography"), over a period of ...

Kropotkin Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (9 December 1842 – 8 February 1921) was a Russian anarchist and geographer known as a proponent of anarchist communism. Born into an aristocratic land-owning family, Kropotkin attended the Page Corps and later ...

and

Romain Rolland Romain Rolland (; 29 January 1866 – 30 December 1944) was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and Mysticism, mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915 "as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary pro ...

. He took part in the '' universitaire populaires'' (1899–1905). Returning to Brittany, he became a professor of English at Pontivy High School. He translated many works by

Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian, and philosopher. Known as the "Sage writing, sage of Chelsea, London, Chelsea", his writings strongly influenced the intellectual and artistic culture of the V ...

into French. In 1911, he became vice president of the literary section of the

Breton Regionalist Union The Breton Regionalist Union (Union Régionaliste Bretonne or URB) was a Breton cultural and political organisation created August 16, 1898. It was a broadly conservative grouping dedicated to preserving Breton cultural identity and regional indep ...

. In the same year he was one of the founders of the Breton Nationalist Party, and an editor of its journal ''Breiz Dishual'' ("Free Brittany"). He was the founder in 1913 of the journal ''Brug'', an anarchist magazine in the Breton language. At this time he defined himself as a libertarian socialist. A fierce Internationalist, he tried to reconcile this aspect of his thinking with his

Breton nationalism Breton nationalism (, ) is the nationalism of the historical province of Brittany, France. Brittany is considered to be one of the six Celtic nations (along with Cornwall, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Scotland and Wales). Breton ''nationalism'' wa ...

. In 1914, like

Jean Jaurès Auguste Marie Joseph Jean Léon Jaurès (3 September 185931 July 1914), commonly referred to as Jean Jaurès (; ), was a French socialist leader. Initially a Moderate Republican, he later became a social democrat and one of the first possibi ...

, he pleaded for peace. During the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

he continued his

pacifist Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ''a ...

fight, maintaining regular correspondence with

. Exhausted, he died on 8 February 1923, aged 53.

Publications

* ''Yves Madec, professeur de collège'', 1905 * Brenn (pseudonym of Emile Masson), ''Les rebelles'', Librairie les pages libres, 1908 * ''Les Bretons et le Socialisme'', Éditions Toullec et Geffroy 1912, introduction and notes by Jean-Yves Guiomar, Paris,

Maspero People with the name Maspero include: *François Maspero (1932–2015), French author and journalist *Gaston Maspero (1846–1916), French Egyptologist *Georges Maspero (1872–1942), French sinologist, son of Gaston *Henri Maspero (1882–1945), F ...

, 1972. * ''Les hommes illustres et leurs paroles inouïes'', en 1919 * ''L’Utopie des îles bienheureuses dans le Pacifique''. Éditions Rieder 1921, Editions Caligrammes, 1984.

Bibliography

* ''Émile Masson, professeur de liberté'' (J. Didier Giraud and Marielle Giraud) Éditions Canope, 1991 *''Émile Masson, prophète et rebelle'' (proceedings of the Emile Masson colloquium at Pontivy, 26, 27 et 28 septembre 2003, under the direction of J.-Didier and Marielle Giraud ; preface by

Edmond Hervé Edmond Hervé (; born 3 December 1942) is a French politician, a member of the Socialist Party and French senator from 2008 to 2014. He was the mayor of Rennes from 1977 to 2008, succeeding Henri Fréville. Biography Born in La Bouillie, C ...

Rennes Rennes (; ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in Northwestern France at the confluence of the rivers Ille and Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the Brittany (administrative region), Brittany Regions of F ...

: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2005. 349 p.- p. de pl., 23 cm. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Masson, Emile 1869 births 1923 deaths Breton nationalists Writers from Brest, France French translators French anarchists French male non-fiction writers