Henri Béraud



Henri Béraud (born 21 September 1885 in Lyon, died 24 October 1958 in Saint-Clément-des-Baleines) was a French novelist and journalist.

Life
Henri Béraud was the son of a baker. In 1903 he began his work in journalism. He joined Le Canard enchaîné in February 1917, recommended by Paul Vaillant-Couturier, and Roland Dorgeles. He renewed his old friendship with Albert London, whose talent had been revealed at the beginning of the war. He also wrote in Le Crapouillot, by Jean Galtier-Boissiere. He published stories, a short series (L'angoisse du mercanti ou le compte du tonneau in 1918), a study on Lyonnais humor, and especially polemical articles against the Parliament, the Academie francaise, Government, antirepublican officers, Action francaise. He was also an international reporter at the Petit Parisien and Paris-Soir, from 1934 - 1944.

He later became known as one of France's best-selling novelists and reporters, and won the Prix Goncourt in 1922. He was virulently Anglophobic and to a lesser extent antisemitic. These factors led him to support Vichy France. He did this by contributing pieces to Gringoire, indicating his hatred of British forces and criticism of the Free French, although he also censured Nazism.

His aid of the Vichy government caused him to be sentenced to death in 1944, but several writers, including François Mauriac intervened on his behalf. The sentence was commuted by Charles de Gaulle to life imprisonment. By 1950 he was freed for health reasons. He died eight years later.

Legacy
On 14 July each year, a ceremony is organized, at the tomb of Henry Béraud, followed by a symposium on writers, in Saint-Clément-des-Baleines (Ile de Ré), ("Writers cursed and politically incorrect," as called the Association of Friends of Rétaise Henri Beraud, being more right-wing, and other right-wing anarchists). These writers include: Henri Béraud, Alphonse de Chateaubriant, Robert Brasillach, Jean de La Varende, Henry de Monfried, Andre Fraigneau, Leon Bloy, Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, Louis-Ferdinand Celine, Pierre Gripari, and Jacques Chardonne.

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
 * 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
 * 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
 * "Rende-vous européens", Les Éditions de France, 1928