Jean Lacouture is a journalist, historian and author. He is particularly famous for his biographies.

Biography

Jean Lacouture began his career in journalism in 1950 in Combat

Combat

Combat, or fighting, is a purposeful violent conflict meant to establish dominance over the opposition, or to terminate the opposition forever, or drive the opposition away from a location where it is not wanted or needed....

as diplomatic redactor. He joined Le Monde

Le Monde

Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...

in 1951. In 1953, he worked in Cairo

Cairo

Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...

 for France Soir

France Soir

France Soir is a French daily newspaper that prospered during the 1950s and 1960s, but it has declined since then under various owners. It was re-launched as a populist tabloid in 2006.-History:...

, before returning to Le Monde

Le Monde

Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...

as director for the overseas services, and grand reporter (the highest title in French journalism) until 1975.

Politically engaged on the Left, Lacouture supported decolonisation, and 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...

 from 1981. He worked for the Nouvel Observateur, and L'Histoire

L'Histoire

L'Histoire is a monthly mainstream French magazine dedicated to historical studies, recognized by peers as the most important historical popular magazine ....

. He is interviewed in the 1968 documentary film about the Vietnam War

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

 entitled In the Year of the Pig

In the Year of the Pig

In the Year of the Pig is a 1968 American documentary film about the origins of the Vietnam War, directed by Emile de Antonio. It was nominated for an Academy award for best documentary....

.

Lacouture was also director for publication at Seuil, one of the main French publishers, from 1961 to 1982, and professor at the IEP of Paris between 1969 and 1972.

He is mainly known to the public because of his biographies, including the lives of Ho Chi Minh

Ho Chi Minh

Hồ Chí Minh , born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc, was a Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader who was prime minister and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam...

, Nasser

Gamal Abdel Nasser

Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein was the second President of Egypt from 1956 until his death. A colonel in the Egyptian army, Nasser led the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 along with Muhammad Naguib, the first president, which overthrew the monarchy of Egypt and Sudan, and heralded a new period of...

, Léon Blum

Léon Blum

André Léon Blum was a French politician, usually identified with the moderate left, and three times the Prime Minister of France.-First political experiences:...

, De Gaulle

Charles de Gaulle

Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....

, François Mauriac

François Mauriac

François Mauriac was a French author; member of the Académie française ; laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature . He was awarded the Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur .-Biography:...

, Pierre Mendès-France

Pierre Mendès-France

Pierre Mendès France was a French politician. He descended from a Portuguese Jewish family that moved to France in the sixteenth century.-Third Republic and World War II:...

, 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...

, Montesquieu, Montaigne, Malraux, Germaine Tillion

Germaine Tillion

Germaine Tillion born in Allègre in Haute-Loire on May 30, 1907 – April 18, 2008) was a French anthropologist, best known for her work in Algeria in the 1950s on behalf of the French government.- Anthropology of the Chaoui :...

, Champollion, Rivière

Rivière

Rivière, La Rivière, Rivières and Les Rivières is the name or part of the name of several communes in France:- Places :* Rivière, Indre-et-Loire, in the Indre-et-Loire département...

, Stendhal

Stendhal

Marie-Henri Beyle , better known by his pen name Stendhal, was a 19th-century French writer. Known for his acute analysis of his characters' psychology, he is considered one of the earliest and foremost practitioners of realism in his two novels Le Rouge et le Noir and La Chartreuse de Parme...

 and Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

.

A dedicated music lover, Lacouture is also president of a society of devotees of Georges Bizet

Georges Bizet

Georges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a...

.

Works

(incomplete list)

• Jesuits: A Multibiography ISBN 1-887178-60-0
• De Gaulle
  • De Gaulle: The Rebel 1890-1944 ISBN 0-393-30999-1
  • De Gaulle: The Ruler 1945-1970 ISBN 0-393-31000-0
• Robert Capa ISBN 0-679-72336-6
• Ho Chi Minh: A Political Biography. ISBN 0-394-70215-8
• Vietnam: Between two truces ASIN B0006D759K
• Montaigne à Cavalo ISBN 85-01-04759-7
• Pierre Mendes France ISBN 0-8419-0856-7
• The demigods: Charismatic leadership in the third world ISBN 0-394-42194-9
• Nasser: A biography ISBN 0-394-46625-X
• Léon Blum ISBN 0-8419-0776-5
• J.F. Kennedy ISBN 2-09-754229-8