Henri Béraud (; 21 September 1885 in
Lyon
Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...
– 24 October 1958 in
Saint-Clément-des-Baleines,
Ré Island), also known as Tristan Audebert, was a French novelist and journalist. He was sentenced to death in 1945, which was later commuted to life imprisonment, for
collaboration
Collaboration (from Latin ''com-'' "with" + ''laborare'' "to labor", "to work") is the process of two or more people, entities or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. Collaboration is similar to cooperation. The ...
with Germany.
Life
Henri Béraud was the son of a baker. In 1903 he began his work in journalism.
He joined the satirical weekly ''
Le Canard enchaîné'' in February 1917, recommended by
Paul Vaillant-Couturier, and
Roland Dorgeles. He renewed his old friendship with
Albert Londres.
He later became known as one of France's best-selling novelists and reporters, and won the
Prix Goncourt
The Prix Goncourt ( , "The Goncourt Prize") is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward of only 10 euros, but resul ...
in 1922. He was virulently
Anglophobic and to a lesser extent
antisemitic. These factors led him to support
Vichy France
Vichy France (; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established as a result of the French capitulation after the Battle of France, ...
. He did this by contributing pieces to the fascist weekly paper ''
Gringoire'', indicating his hatred of British forces and criticism of the
Free French.
Typical of Vichy anti-British propaganda was the widely distributed pamphlet published in August 1940 and written by self-proclaimed "professional Anglophobe" Henri Béraud entitled, ("Should England Be Reduced to Slavery?"); the question in the title was merely rhetorical. Additionally, Vichy mixed Anglophobia with racism and
antisemitism
Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
to portray the British as a racially degenerate "mixed race" working for Jewish capitalists, in contrast to the "racially pure" peoples on the continent of Europe who were building a "New Order".
His aid of the
Vichy government
Vichy France (; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established as a result of the French capitulation after the defeat against ...
caused him to be sentenced to death in 1945, but several writers, including
François Mauriac
François Charles Mauriac (; ; 11 October 1885 – 1 September 1970) was a French novelist, dramatist, critic, poet, and journalist, a member of the'' Académie française'' (from 1933), and laureate of the 1952 Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Pr ...
intervened on his behalf. The sentence was commuted by
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French general and statesman who led the Free France, Free French Forces against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Re ...
to life imprisonment. By 1950, he was freed for health reasons. He died eight years later.
Works
* ''L'École moderne de peinture lyonnaise'' (1912)
* ''Le Vitriol de Lune'' (1921, prix Goncourt 1922)
* ''Le Martyre de l'obèse'', (prix Goncourt 1922)
* ''Lazarus'',
Albin Michel, 1924 (re-published in 2006 by
Hippocampus Press together with ''An Exchange of Souls'' by
Barry Pain, ed.
S. T. Joshi)
*''Ce que j'ai vu à Moscou'', Les Éditions de France 1925
*''Le Bois du templier pendu'', Les Éditions de France, 1926
*''Ce que j'ai vu à Berlin'', Les Éditions de France, 1926
*''La Gerbe d'or'', Les Éditions de France, (1928)
*''Route Cavalière de la Solitude, Lapina,'' (1928)
*''Ce que j'ai vu à Rome'', Les Éditions de France, 1929
*''Qu’as-tu fait de ta jeunesse?'' (1941)
*''Les Lurons de Sabolas'' (1932)
*''Ciel de suie'' (1933)
*''Faut-il réduire l'Angleterre en esclavage'' (1935)
*''Les raisons d'un silence'', Inter-France, 1944
*''Les derniers beaux jours'', Plon, 1953
*''Portraits de contemporains''
*''Retour sentimental vers Alphonse Daudet'', 2001
*''Écrits dans Gringoire (1928–1937)'', 2003
*''Au Capucin Gourmand''
*''Le Flâneur salarié''
*'' "Rendez-vous européens'', Les Éditions de France, 1928
References
External links
Novo Press
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beraud, Henri
1885 births
1958 deaths
Writers from Lyon
French fascists
20th-century French novelists
20th-century French male writers
20th-century French journalists
Writers from Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
French military personnel of World War I
Prix Goncourt winners
French male novelists
French male non-fiction writers
French Fascist propagandists
French Nazi propagandists
French prisoners sentenced to death
People convicted of indignité nationale
Prisoners sentenced to death by France