Joan Bodon, who was born in Crespin, Aveyron

Aveyron

Aveyron is a département in southern France named after the Aveyron River.- History :Aveyron is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790....

, Occitania

Occitania

Occitania , also sometimes lo País d'Òc, "the Oc Country"), is the region in southern Europe where Occitan was historically the main language spoken, and where it is sometimes still used, for the most part as a second language...

 (France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

) on December 11, 1920 and died on February 24, 1975 in Algeria

Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

, is an author who wrote exclusively in Occitan although he is credited as being called Jean Boudou in the French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 translations of his works. His mother was a contaira, or storyteller, from Rouergue

Rouergue

Rouergue is a former province of France, bounded on the north by Auvergne, on the south and southwest by Languedoc, on the east by Gévaudan and on the west by Quercy...

 and paved the way for his love and frequent use of traditional Langue d'Oc tales and figures. His name is pronounced dʒan buˈdu. Together with Renat Nelli

Renat Nelli

Renat Nelli , who was born in Carcassonne, Aude in 1896 and died in 1982, was one of the major Occitan authors of the 20th century.In Vichy France, Nelli joined the French Resistance and in 1945 was one of the co-founders of the Institut d'Estudis Occitans...

, Marcela Delpastre

Marcela Delpastre

Marcela Delpastre was an Occitan- and French-language author from Limousin. She was born on September 2, 1925 and died on February 6, 1998. She is known in non-Occitan-speaking France as Marcelle Delpastre.-Early years:...

, Robèrt Lafont

Robèrt Lafont

Robèrt Lafont was an Occitan intellectual from Provence. He was a linguist, an author, an historian, an expert in literature and a political theoretician. His name in French reads Robert Lafont....

 and Max Roqueta

Max Roqueta

Max Roqueta was one of the most famous contemporary Occitan writers. A physician, he was also an activist .-Prose:...

, Bodon ranks among the most prominent Occitan writers of the twentieth century.

Biography

Upon completing his primary school teaching in his native Crespin, Joan Bodon was admitted to cours complémentaire in Naucelle

Naucelle

Naucelle is a commune in the Aveyron department in southern France.-Population:...

 in 1932. He began stammer

Stammer

A stammer, or stammering, is a speech disorder typified by the involuntary repetition of a sound or sounds.Stammer, Stammers and Stammmering may also refer to:* Notker of St Gall "Notker the Stammerer" * Steven Stamkos A stammer, or stammering, is a speech disorder typified by the involuntary ...

ing after hearing news of his beloved grandmother's death in 1934 and never recovered from it. At 17, he entered the école normale of Rodez

Rodez

Rodez is a town and commune in southern France, in the Aveyron department, of which it is the capital. Its inhabitants are called Ruthénois.-History:Existing from at least the 5th century BC, Rodez was founded by the Celts...

 in order to be trained as a future teacher. He graduated while working part-time in Rodez, Pau and Saint-André de Najac's technical schools, and started his career in Castanet in 1941 as a primary school teacher. He was then sent to Durenque. From 1943 until the Red Army

Red Army

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

 liberated his camp at the end of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, he did forced labour in Breslau, Silesia

Silesia

Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...

. Back in Durenque, Joan was married to Camille Vidal before moving again to Mauron de Maleville (1949-1955) and returning close to home in Saint-Laurent-d'Olt (1955-1967), still as a teacher. He died in Algiers

Algiers

' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...

, eight years after being promoted to the then-French colony's capital.

Works

Written entirely in Occitan, his mother tongue, and despite the usual contempt of the Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

ian élite for minority languages, his works include a number of novels, stories and poems inspired by the universality of life. According to Georg Kremnitz, "there is a huge gap between the raw material gathered by Bodon and what he made of it with his writing... Anyway, we know the value of his art, both its literary value and its human value: Bodon ranks among the greatest authors of modern times. Had he written in a majority language, his voice would now be heard everywhere. It is our duty to make sure this voice resounds as far as possible because, unlike so many other invasive voices, his is not closed but open to a more human world..."