No, we will not celebrate here Edgar Morin, who, at 102 spring, continues to publish at least one pamphlet every year; as an elixir of youth, Actes Sud even announces the publication, on April 24, of the manuscript lost in 1983 (found in 2006 and reworked since then) of what was then to constitute the 3rd volume of the series The method. Let’s instead celebrate his cadets who would have turned 100 this year. It’s amazing what 1923 saw the birth of talented authors, “resurrected” these days. Anniversaries, a selling point, certainly, but, in this case, not sure that the publishers are expecting amazing results, it is above all a question of celebrating these writers who made the heyday of their house, the recognition of the belly somehow…
Thus Robert Sabatier, who died in 2012, the successful author of Swedish Matches (1969)of Three Mint Lollipops (1972)and Wild Hazelnuts (1974), a three-million dollar trilogy that Albin Michel, its historic publisher, publishes in a single volume with a new preface by CEO Francis Esménard. At the same time, Albin Michel, decidedly very “heritage”, pays homage to Bernard Clavel with the reissue of two flagship novels by the prolific Jurassian, The Spanish (1959) and The Sun of the Dead (1998), as well as Gilles Lapouge, also with two titles, I am writing to you from Brazil… And The Koenigsmark Follies. The philosopher René Girard would have been 100 years old on December 25. As a Christmas gift, Éditions de L’Herne are reissuing the “dark” Anorexia and mimetic desire (2008) and the subtle Geometries of desire (2010). He too would have been 100 years old this year, however, the author of Devil in the bodydied at 20, will always remain this Serious Young Man in the Roaring Twenties (Robert Laffont), as Chloé Radiguet, the niece of Raymond Radiguet, and Julien Cendres tell us in their biography.
We could also quote Morris, the father of lucky Luke (Gallimard, Dupuis), or the thriller Joseph Bialot (Série Noire). Published in 1978 in the Super Noire collection (n°110), before being taken up in Série Noire (n°1749) a year later, The ready-to-bleed show by Joseph Bialot received the Grand Prix for Police Literature. Remember that Joseph Bialot is a figure in the revival of French crime fiction in the 1980s, alongside Jean-Patrick Manchette, Jean Vautrin and even ADG. Note also the publication by La Manufacture of books by It’s in winter that the days get longer, the author’s autobiographical account of his deportation to Auschwitz and his return from the concentration camp. You have noticed ? Not a woman in this shower of tributes. “I lived on art, I lived on love, […] Why, why, Lord, Ah, why do you reward me like this?” Callas, born… in 1923, could have sung.