Jean-Edern Hallier
Encyclopedia
Jean-Edern Hallier was a French author.

Overview

Hallier was the son of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 French General André Hallier. Jean-Edern was born in 1936 and lost an eye during the siege of Budapest
Battle of Budapest
The Siege of Budapest centered on the Hungarian capital city of Budapest. It was fought towards the end of World War II in Europe, during the Soviet Budapest Offensive. The siege started when Budapest, defended by Hungarian and German troops, was first encircled on 29 December 1944 by the Red Army...

, where his father was on diplomatic posting. While the Hallier family has ancient Breton
Breton people
The Bretons are an ethnic group located in the region of Brittany in France. They trace much of their heritage to groups of Brythonic speakers who emigrated from southwestern Great Britain in waves from the 3rd to 6th century into the Armorican peninsula, subsequently named Brittany after them.The...

 roots on his father's side, Jean-Edern later (L'évangile du fou) claimed his mothers' Alsatian and Jewish heritage.

Hallier, returning to France after World War II, first studied at the Pierre-qui-vire convent and then at a Paris lycée and at Oxford. He travelled extensively, even getting shipwrecked in the Persian gulf
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...

, and in 1960 founded the literary review Tel Quel
Tel Quel
Tel Quel was an avant-garde magazine for literature, founded in 1960 in Paris by Philippe Sollers and Jean-Edern Hallier.-Overview:...

with Philippe Sollers
Philippe Sollers
Philippe Sollers is a French writer and critic. In 1960 he founded the avant garde journal Tel Quel , published by Seuil, which ran until 1982...

. Three years later he published his first novel, "Les Aventures d'une jeune fille" (A young lady's adventures). He then worked as a publisher with Plon
Plon (publisher)
Plon is a French book publishing company, founded in 1852 by Henri Plon and his two brothers.The Plon family were Walloons coming from Nivelle, France. One of their ancestors is probably the Danish typographer Jehan Plon who lived at the end of the 16th century.-History:The Editions Plon were...

 and finished his second novel, "Le Grand écrivain" (The Great Author), in 1967.

Deeply stirred by the 1968 student riots in Paris, he disclosed his then leftist views in the partly autobiographical La Cause des peuples (1962), plunged into politics full-time and started the first, leftist version of his paper, L'Idiot international, partly funded at first by Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy, particularly Marxism, and was one of the key figures in literary...

 and Simone de Beauvoir
Simone de Beauvoir
Simone-Ernestine-Lucie-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir, often shortened to Simone de Beauvoir , was a French existentialist philosopher, public intellectual, and social theorist. She wrote novels, essays, biographies, an autobiography in several volumes, and monographs on philosophy, politics, and...

.

He traveled to Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

 after Pinochet's 1973 coup, with funds gathered by Régis Debray
Régis Debray
Jules Régis Debray is a French intellectual, journalist, government official and professor. He is known for his theorization of mediology, a critical theory of the long-term transmission of cultural meaning in human society; and for having fought in 1967 with Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara in...

 which were to be handed out to the Chilean resistance. However, he returned to Paris without the money, and without having handed it to the resistance, claiming he had bought 400.000 hectares in the Amazon Basin
Amazon Basin
The Amazon Basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries that drains an area of about , or roughly 40 percent of South America. The basin is located in the countries of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Venezuela...

 to provide shelter for the future Chilean exiles. He progressively broke up with the left-wing after this event. He also broke up with the nouveau roman
Nouveau roman
The nouveau roman is a type of 1950s French novel that diverged from classical literary genres. Émile Henriot coined the title in an article in the popular French newspaper Le Monde on May 22, 1957 to describe certain writers who experimented with style in each novel, creating an essentially new...

 in 1974 with Chagrins d'amour.

He hosted one of the first pirate radio in 1977, "Radio Verte", close to the ecology
Ecology
Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...

 movement. Radio Verte functioned for two days only, but wielded a lasting influence.

He was suspected of simulating his own kidnapping in 1982, and of commanditing a bombing in Régis Debray's building (which made no victims), a suspicion recently confirmed by Régis Debray and Gilles Ménage
Gilles Ménage
Gilles Ménage was a French scholar.He was born at Angers, the son of Guillaume Ménage, king's advocate at Angers, where Gilles was born....

, who worked for President François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...

 in the Elysée cell involved in the wiretap scandal. He also committed, it was alleged, less serious "attacks", such as setting fire to Françoise Mallet-Joris
Françoise Mallet-Joris
Françoise Mallet-Joris is the nom de plume of Françoise Lilar.She was born in Antwerp, the daughter of the writer Suzanne Lilar and the Belgian Minister of Justice and Minister of State Albert Lilar, and the sister of the 18th century art historian Marie Fredericq-Lilar...

's doormat. Mallet-Joris was one of the Goncourt jury
Académie Goncourt
The Société littéraire des Goncourt , usually called the académie Goncourt , is a French literary organization based in Paris. It was founded by the French writer and publisher Edmond de Goncourt...

, and the fire was meant as a protest against the way literary prizes were awarded.

He was successively a Maoist, an admirer of Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...

, while at the same time getting close to Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...

, and even supporting Pinochet after his return from his expedition to Chile.

Close for a time to François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...

, who successfully ran for President in 1981 for the Socialist Party (PS), he later opposed him, threatening to reveal the existence of his illegitimate daughter Mazarine Pingeot
Mazarine Pingeot
Mazarine Marie Pingeot , who changed her name to Mazarine Marie Pingeot-Mitterrand in 2005, is a writer, journalist and professor.-Life:...

. From the moment he threatened to publish a pamphlet on Mitterrand in 1985, he was closely surveilled by the special cell in the Elysée Palace
Élysée Palace
The Élysée Palace is the official residence of the President of the French Republic, containing his office, and is where the Council of Ministers meets. It is located near the Champs-Élysées in Paris....

 in an attempt to block the revelation of Mazarine's existence.
Among other verifiable events, Hallier's telephone conversations were continually eavesdropped on by the Elysée palace
Élysée Palace
The Élysée Palace is the official residence of the President of the French Republic, containing his office, and is where the Council of Ministers meets. It is located near the Champs-Élysées in Paris....

 from 1985 onward. He and any potential publisher were hounded by tax inspectors dispatched to instill the fear of "God" (Mitterrand's nickname) into them, his apartment burned, etc. To this day it is very difficult to obtain one of Hallier's books anywhere but in a few independent libraries.

In 1991, L'Idiot international was one of the French newspapers which opposed participation to the Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...

, and Jean-Edern Hallier went to Iraq to cover the hostilities. He had earlier published Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses
The Satanic Verses
The Satanic Verses is Salman Rushdie's fourth novel, first published in 1988 and inspired in part by the life of Prophet Muhammad. As with his previous books, Rushdie used magical realism and relied on contemporary events and people to create his characters...

(1988), and personally delivered a copy of the book to the Iranian embassy in Paris
He was attacked in defamation for articles published in L'Idiot international by Jack Lang
Jack Lang (French politician)
Jack Mathieu Émile Lang is a French politician. A member of the Socialist Party, he served as France's Minister of Culture from 1981 to 1986 and 1988 to 1992, and as Minister of Education from 1992 to 1993 and 2000 to 2002. He was also the Mayor of Blois from 1989 to 2000...

 and others. He never defended himself during the trials, and never went in Appeal Court. He had to auction off his flat in order to pay damages to Bernard Tapie
Bernard Tapie
Bernard Tapie is a French businessman, politician and occasional actor, singer, and TV host. He was Ministre de la Ville in the government of Pierre Bérégovoy, a businessman specializing in recovery for bankrupted companies, among which Adidas is the most famous ; and owner of sports teams...

 who had successfully charged him with defamation.

He died, supposedly of a heart attack, in Deauville
Deauville
Deauville is a commune in the Calvados département in the Basse-Normandie region in northwestern France.With its racecourse, harbour, international film festival, marinas, conference centre, villas, Grand Casino and sumptuous hotels, Deauville is regarded as the "queen of the Norman beaches" and...

 in 1997, leaving a son.

Style

His writing style was clear, elegant, fluid, precise and classical - even erudite; his panache and talent, combined with a gift for imaginative thunderbolts and a penchant for a good fight, made him into the bête noire (the black sheep) of the literary establishment. His vengeful attacks (he was said to have been refused a government appointment after the Socialist electoral victory of 1981) were all the more devastating as they came from an acclaimed writer with an unerring flair for talent. He was the first to spot Michel Houellebecq
Michel Houellebecq
Michel Houellebecq , born Michel Thomas, 26 February 1958—or 1956 —on the French island of Réunion, is a controversial and award-winning French author, filmmaker and poet. To admirers he is a writer in the tradition of literary provocation that reaches back to the Marquis de Sade and Baudelaire;...

) whom he recruited to contribute to his popular and opinionated newspaper L'Idiot International.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK