Pierre Gamarra
Encyclopedia
Pierre Gamarra was a French
writer. He was a poet
and novelist, but also a literary critic.
He is best known for his poems and novels for the youth
. He has often depicted his native region of Midi-Pyrénées
in his works. Pierre Gamarra was also chief editor and director of the literary review Europe
.
in 1919. From 1938 until 1940, he was a teacher in the South of France. During the German Occupation, he joined various Resistance groups in Toulouse, involved in the writing and distributing of clandestine publications. This led him to a career as a journalist, and then, more specifically both as a writer and a literary journalist.
In 1948, he receives the Charles Veillon International Grand Prize in Switzerland for his novel La Maison de feu.The title meansThe fiery house and tells of life before the Second World War. Members of the 1948 Veillon Prize jury included writers André Chamson
, Vercors
and Louis Guilloux
.
In 1951, after having worked as a journalist in Toulouse, he is invited to collaborate with Louis Aragon
to the literary journal Europe
in Paris. He will later become the journal's editor-in-chief and will run it from 1974 until 2009 as its director. Under Pierre Gamarra's direction, Europe
continued to follow the original spirit initiated by Romain Rolland
at the creation of the journal. For instance, numerous issues were devoted to an extensive presentation of literatures from countries underrated on the international map of Letters.
For more than 50 years he also contributed to each of the journal's issue with a review named The Typewriter In French :La Machine à écrire ; the review is continued in the Journal under the same name, by another author. which shows the same international curiosity.
His novels often take place in his native South-West of France : he wrote a novel trilogy based on the history of Toulouse
, various novels depicting life in the Pyrenees
; he is also the author of The Midnight Roosters, In French, Les Coqs de Minuit. set in the Aveyron
in the era of the French Revolution
. The book was adapted for the French television channel FR3 in 1973. The film was shot in the town of Najac
with the actor Claude Brosset in the cast.
Together with the realistic and quite classical style of his novels, the fact that most of their stories are located in that region contributed to his reputation as a regionalist writer with social concerns.
He died in May 2009, leaving a substantial body of work, as yet untranslated into English. The Britannica Online Encyclopedia sees in him a ″deligthful practitioner with notable drollery and high technical skills" in the art of children's poetry and children's stories. His poems and fable
s written for children are well known by French schoolchildren.
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...
writer. He was a poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and novelist, but also a literary critic.
He is best known for his poems and novels for the youth
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
. He has often depicted his native region of Midi-Pyrénées
Midi-Pyrénées
Midi-Pyrénées is the largest region of metropolitan France by area, larger than the Netherlands or Denmark.Midi-Pyrénées has no historical or geographical unity...
in his works. Pierre Gamarra was also chief editor and director of the literary review Europe
Europe (magazine)
- History :Created by Romain Rolland and a group of French writers, the literary magazine Europe began on 15 February 1923. It is still published by Éditions Rieder....
.
Life
Pierre Gamarra was born in ToulouseToulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
in 1919. From 1938 until 1940, he was a teacher in the South of France. During the German Occupation, he joined various Resistance groups in Toulouse, involved in the writing and distributing of clandestine publications. This led him to a career as a journalist, and then, more specifically both as a writer and a literary journalist.
In 1948, he receives the Charles Veillon International Grand Prize in Switzerland for his novel La Maison de feu.The title meansThe fiery house and tells of life before the Second World War. Members of the 1948 Veillon Prize jury included writers André Chamson
André Chamson
André Chamson was a French archivist, novelist and essayist. He was the father of the novelist Frédérique Hébrard.-Life:Chamson was born at , Nîmes, Gard....
, Vercors
Jean Bruller
Jean Marcel Bruller was a French writer and illustrator who co-founded Les Éditions de Minuit with Pierre de Lescure and Yvonne Paraf. During the World War II occupation of northern France he joined the Resistance and his texts were published under the pseudonym Vercors.Several of his novels have...
and Louis Guilloux
Louis Guilloux
Louis Guilloux was a French writer born in Saint-Brieuc, Brittany, where he lived throughout his life. He is known for his Social Realist novels describing working class life and political struggles in the mid-twentieth century...
.
In 1951, after having worked as a journalist in Toulouse, he is invited to collaborate with Louis Aragon
Louis Aragon
Louis Aragon , was a French poet, novelist and editor, a long-time member of the Communist Party and a member of the Académie Goncourt.- Early life :...
to the literary journal Europe
Europe (magazine)
- History :Created by Romain Rolland and a group of French writers, the literary magazine Europe began on 15 February 1923. It is still published by Éditions Rieder....
in Paris. He will later become the journal's editor-in-chief and will run it from 1974 until 2009 as its director. Under Pierre Gamarra's direction, Europe
Europe (magazine)
- History :Created by Romain Rolland and a group of French writers, the literary magazine Europe began on 15 February 1923. It is still published by Éditions Rieder....
continued to follow the original spirit initiated by Romain Rolland
Romain Rolland
Romain Rolland was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915.-Biography:...
at the creation of the journal. For instance, numerous issues were devoted to an extensive presentation of literatures from countries underrated on the international map of Letters.
For more than 50 years he also contributed to each of the journal's issue with a review named The Typewriter In French :La Machine à écrire ; the review is continued in the Journal under the same name, by another author. which shows the same international curiosity.
His novels often take place in his native South-West of France : he wrote a novel trilogy based on the history of Toulouse
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
, various novels depicting life in the Pyrenees
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...
; he is also the author of The Midnight Roosters, In French, Les Coqs de Minuit. set in the 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....
in the era of the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
. The book was adapted for the French television channel FR3 in 1973. The film was shot in the town of Najac
Najac
Najac is a commune in the Aveyron department in southern France.Najac is a picturesque village set along a ridge above a bend in the Aveyron River. In the earlier part of the last century the village had around 2000 people but it suffered marked population decline as workers migrated to towns and...
with the actor Claude Brosset in the cast.
Together with the realistic and quite classical style of his novels, the fact that most of their stories are located in that region contributed to his reputation as a regionalist writer with social concerns.
He died in May 2009, leaving a substantial body of work, as yet untranslated into English. The Britannica Online Encyclopedia sees in him a ″deligthful practitioner with notable drollery and high technical skills" in the art of children's poetry and children's stories. His poems and fable
Fable
A fable is a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, mythical creatures, plants, inanimate objects or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized , and that illustrates a moral lesson , which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim.A fable differs from...
s written for children are well known by French schoolchildren.
Stories
- Les Vacances de tonton 36 (2006)
- Moustache et ses amis de toutes les couleurs, new edition of Moustache et ses amis (1974)
- Salut, monsieur de la Fontaine, fables, (2005), illustrated by Frédéric Devienne
- Les Aventuriers de l'alphabet, (2002)
- 12 tonnes de diamant (1978)
- La Mandarine et le Mandarin, (1974)
- L'Aventure du Serpent à plume, Youth Prize 1961.
- Berlurette contre Tour Eiffel (1961)
- Le Trésor de Tricoire (1959)
- La Rose des Karpathes, (1955)
Poems
- Mon cartable et autres poèmes à réciter (2006)
- Des mots pour une maman (1984)
- Les Mots enchantés (1952)
- Voici des maisons (1979)
Adaptations in French
- Les Fariboles de Bolla (1981), La Farandole, after Gunilla Bergström, ill. by Gunilla BergströmGunilla BergströmGunilla Bergström is a Swedish author, journalist, and illustrator from Gothenburg. She is best known for her series of children's books about the character Alfie Atkins ....
.
Novels and novellas
- L'Empreinte de l'ours, (2010), De Borée
- Les Coqs de minuit; Rosalie Brousse, new edition (2009), De Borée
- Le Maître d'Ecole,-(new ed. including La femme de Simon) (2008), De Borée
- La Maison de feu, (1948), Éditions de la Baconnière (Neuchatel), Charles Veillon Literary International Grand Prize
Literary journals issues about Pierre Gamarra
- Poésie Première Hors-Série Tarn en Poésie 2003 avec Pierre Gamarra
- Poésie Première n° 29, (2005)
Interviews with Pierre Gamarra
- Interview with Pierre Gamarra Tohoku UniversityTohoku University, abbreviated to , located in the city of Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture in the Tōhoku Region, Japan, is a Japanese national university. It is the third oldest Imperial University in Japan and is a member of the National Seven Universities...
, Japan, Faculty of Letters Bulletin, 27 (Year 2006) - Vivre en Val-D’Oise, n° 112.- Nov..-Dec. 2008.- Interview by Dominique Laurent.
Homages to Pierre Gamarra
- Pierre Gamarra, by Charles Dobzynski, Michel Delon, Jean Métellus, Roger Bordier, Béatrice Didier, Raymond Jean, Bernard Chambaz, Michel Besnier, Marc Petit, Claude Sicard, Georges-Emmanuel Clancier, Henri Béhar, Gérard Noiret, Francis Combes, in EuropeEurope (magazine)- History :Created by Romain Rolland and a group of French writers, the literary magazine Europe began on 15 February 1923. It is still published by Éditions Rieder....
n° 966, October 2009. - Homages to Pierre Gamarra in Les Cahiers de la Lomagne (Los Quasèrns de la Lomanha), n° 15.- pp. 1; p. 16-29. (Year 2009)
Sources
- Interview with Pierre Gamarra Tohoku UniversityTohoku University, abbreviated to , located in the city of Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture in the Tōhoku Region, Japan, is a Japanese national university. It is the third oldest Imperial University in Japan and is a member of the National Seven Universities...
, Japan, Faculty of Letters Bulletin, 27 (Year 2006) - Article from the Maitron en ligne (Online dictionary of social movements and personalities); in Fr..- (author: Bernard Épin)
See also
- Europe (magazine)Europe (magazine)- History :Created by Romain Rolland and a group of French writers, the literary magazine Europe began on 15 February 1923. It is still published by Éditions Rieder....