Jean Lacouture
{{Short description|French journalist, historian and author (1921–2015)}}{{Expand French|topic=bio}}{{infobox person
| name = Jean Lacouture
| image = Jean Lacouture (2).jpg
| caption = Jean Lacouture in 2010
| birth_date = {{birth date|1921|06|09|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Bordeaux, France
| death_date = {{death date and age|2015|07|16|1921|06|09|df=yes}}
| death_place = Roussillon, France
| occupation = Journalist, historian
}}
Jean Lacouture (9 June 1921 – 16 July 2015) was a journalist, historian and author. He was particularly famous for his biographies.{{cite web |url=http://www.eurozine.com/authors/lacouture.html |title=Eurozine - Jean Lacouture |accessdate=2011-01-01 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120306035716/http://www.eurozine.com/authors/lacouture.html |archivedate=2012-03-06 }}
Career
Jean Lacouture was born in Bordeaux, France. He began his career in journalism in 1950 in Combat as diplomatic editor. He joined Le Monde in 1951. In 1953, he worked in Cairo for France Soir, before returning to Le Monde as director for the overseas services, and grand reporter (one of the highest titles in French journalism) until 1975.
Politically engaged on the Left, Lacouture supported decolonisation, and Mitterrand from 1981. He worked for the Nouvel Observateur, and L'Histoire. He is interviewed in the 1968 documentary film about the Vietnam War entitled In the Year of the Pig.
Lacouture was also director for publication at Seuil, one of the main French publishers, from 1961 to 1982, and professor at the L'Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences PO) between 1969 and 1972.
He was mainly known to the public because of his biographies, including the lives of Ho Chi Minh, Nasser, Léon Blum, De Gaulle, François Mauriac, Pierre Mendès France, Mitterrand, Montesquieu, Montaigne, Malraux, Germaine Tillion, Champollion, Jacques Rivière, Stendhal and Kennedy.
A dedicated music lover, Lacouture was also president of a society of devotees of Georges Bizet. In 2015 he died in Roussillon, France.{{cite news|url=http://www.lemonde.fr/disparitions/article/2015/07/17/mort-de-jean-lacouture-eminent-journaliste-et-biographe_4687210_3382.html|language=fr|title=Mort de Jean Lacouture, éminent journaliste et biographe|publisher=Le Monde|date=17 July 2015}}
Works
{{Expand list|date=September 2015}}
- 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}}
- [https://archive.org/details/hochiminhlacouture 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}}
- "l’Égypte en mouvement"
References
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Category:Writers from Bordeaux
Category:20th-century French writers
Category:20th-century French historians
Category:20th-century French journalists
Category:French war correspondents
Category:People of the Algerian War
Category:Prix Goncourt de la Biographie winners
Category:Grand Officers of the Legion of Honour
Category:Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
Category:20th-century French male writers
Category:French male non-fiction writers
Category:French expatriates in Egypt
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