Jean Raspail

{{Short description|French author, traveler, and explorer (1925–2020)}}

{{Infobox writer

| image = Jean Raspail - Portrait - 2010.jpg

| alt = Raspail in 2010

| caption = Raspail in 2010

| birth_date = {{birth date|1925|07|05|df=y}}

| birth_place = Chemillé-sur-Dême, Indre-et-Loire, France

| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2020|6|13|1925|07|05}}

| death_place = Paris, France

| occupation = Explorer, novelist, travel writer

| years_active =

| notableworks = The Camp of the Saints; Moi, Antoine de Tounens, roi de Patagonie

| awards = Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française (1981)
Prix Maison de la Presse (1995)
Grand prix de littérature de l'Académie française (2003)
Grande Médaille d'Or des Explorations (2007)
Prix Combourg-Chateaubriand (2008)

}}{{Conservatism in France|Intellectuals}}

Jean Raspail ({{IPA|fr|ʒɑ̃ ʁaspaj}}, 5 July 1925 – 13 June 2020) was a French explorer, novelist, and travel writer. Many of his books are about historical figures, exploration and indigenous peoples. He was a recipient of the prestigious French literary awards Grand Prix du Roman and Grand Prix de littérature by the Académie française. The French government honoured him in 2003 by appointing him to the Legion of Honor, with the grade of Officer.{{Cite news|url=https://www.la-croix.com/Archives/2004-01-02/La-promotion-de-la-Legion-d-honneur-du-nouvel-an-HOMMAGE-_NP_-2004-01-02-198404|title = La promotion de la Légion d'honneur du nouvel an HOMMAGE|newspaper = La Croix|date = 2 January 2004}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.lerougeetlenoir.org/information/les-breves/litterature-jean-raspail-a-89-ans|title=[LITTÉRATURE] Jean Raspail a 89 ans|access-date=14 April 2021|archive-date=25 June 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220625005443/https://www.lerougeetlenoir.org/information/les-breves/litterature-jean-raspail-a-89-ans|url-status=dead}} Internationally, he is best known for his controversial 1973 novel The Camp of the Saints, which is about mass third-world immigration to Europe.

Life and career

Born on 5 July 1925 in Chemillé-sur-Dême, Indre-et-Loire, Raspail was the son of factory manager Octave Raspail and Marguerite Chaix. He attended private Catholic school at Saint-Jean de Passy in Paris, the Institution Sainte-Marie d'Antony and the École des Roches in Verneuil-sur-Avre.

During the first twenty years of his career Raspail traveled the world. He led a Tierra del Fuego–Alaska car trek in 1950–52 and, in 1954, a French research expedition to the land of the Incas.{{cite web|last1=Dupuis|first1=Jérôme|title=Le camp des Saints, de Jean Raspail, un succès de librairie raciste?|url=http://www.lexpress.fr/culture/livre/le-camp-des-saints-de-jean-raspail-un-succes-de-librairie-raciste_980039.html|website=LExpress.fr|publisher=The Express|access-date=22 August 2017|language=fr|date=6 April 2011}} In 1981, his novel Moi, Antoine de Tounens, roi de Patagonie (I, Antoine of Tounens, King of Patagonia) won the Grand Prix du Roman (award for a novel) of the Académie française.{{cite book|last1=Dupuis|first1=Jerome|title=Le camp des Saints, de Jean Raspail, un succès de librairie raciste?|date=6 April 2011|publisher=L'Express|url=http://www.lexpress.fr/culture/livre/le-camp-des-saints-de-jean-raspail-un-succes-de-librairie-raciste_980039.html|language=fr|quote=En 1981, il a reçu le Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française pour Moi, Antoine de Tounens, roi de Patagonie}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.academie-francaise.fr/grand-prix-du-roman|title = Grand Prix du Roman | Académie française}}

His traditional Catholicism serves as an inspiration for many of his works, in which the utopias of communism and liberalism are shown to fail, and a Catholic monarchy is restored. In his 1990 novel Sire a French king is crowned in Reims in February 1999, the 18-year-old Philippe Pharamond de Bourbon, a direct descendant of the last French kings.

In his best known work, The Camp of the Saints (1973), Raspail predicts the collapse of Western civilization from an overwhelming "tidal wave" of Third World immigration. The "hordes" of the world rise and, in the words of playwright Ian Allen, "destroy the white race."{{cite news|last=Allen|first=Ian|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/30/opinion/inside-the-world-of-racist-science-fiction.html|title=Inside the World of Racist Science Fiction|work=The New York Times|date=30 July 2018|access-date=25 December 2018}} The book has been translated into English, German, Spanish, Italian, Afrikaans, Czech, Dutch, Polish, Hungarian and Portuguese, and as of 2006 it had sold over 500,000 copies.{{cite web |url=http://edicionesaltera.com/portfolio/el-desembarco/ |title=El desembarco | Ediciones áltera |website=edicionesaltera.com |access-date=22 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905141030/http://edicionesaltera.com/portfolio/el-desembarco/ |archive-date=5 September 2015 |url-status=dead}} After The Camp of the Saints Raspail wrote other novels, including North, Sire, and The Fisher's Ring. Raspail reiterated these views in a co-written 1985 article ("Will France Still Be French in 2015?") for Le Figaro magazine, where he stated "the proportion of France's non-European immigrant population will grow to endanger the survival of traditional French culture, values and identity".{{cite news|last=Miller|first=Judith|author-link=Judith Miller|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/11/03/world/french-article-sets-off-furor-on-immigrants.html|title=French Article Sets Off Furor on Immigrants|work=The New York Times|date=3 November 1985|access-date=2 February 2019}}

Raspail was a candidate for the French Academy in 2000, for which he received the most votes,[http://www.academie-francaise.fr/actualites/actu_2000.asp Release] Académie française. yet did not obtain the majority required for election to the vacant seat of Jean Guitton.

An article by Raspail for Le Figaro on 17 June 2004, entitled "The Fatherland Betrayed by the Republic",[http://jeanraspail.free.fr/divers.htm La patrie trahie par la république] Le Figaro, 17 June 2004 in which he criticized the French immigration policy, was sued by International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism on the grounds of "incitement to racial hatred", but the action was turned down by the court on 28 October.

In 1970, the Académie française awarded Raspail its Jean Walter Prize for the whole of his work.Académie française, [http://www.academie-francaise.fr/prix-jean-walter Prix Jean Walter Lauréats]. In 2007 he was awarded the Grande Médaille d’Or des Explorations et Voyages de Découverte by the Société de géographie of France for the whole of his work.{{cite web|url=http://www.socgeo.org/grande-medaille-dor-des-explorations-et-voyages-de-decouverte/|title=GRANDE MÉDAILLE D'OR DES EXPLORATIONS ET VOYAGES DE DÉCOUVERTE (in French)|publisher=Société de géographie|access-date=1 December 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141206004240/http://www.socgeo.org/grande-medaille-dor-des-explorations-et-voyages-de-decouverte/|archive-date=6 December 2014}}

Personal life

He lived in Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris. He died in the {{ill|Arts Promotion Centre of Finland|fr|Hôpital Henri-Dunant|lt=Henri-Dunant Hospital}} on 13 June 2020, aged 94.{{cite web |url=https://www.lefigaro.fr/culture/mort-de-jean-raspail-ecrivain-et-explorateur-auteur-du-controverse-camp-des-saints-20200613 |title=Mort de Jean Raspail, écrivain et explorateur, auteur du "Camp des Saints" |last=Naulin |first=Michaël |date=13 June 2020 |publisher=Le Figaro |access-date=13 June 2020 |language=fr}}

Works

Terre de feu – Alaska (Land of Fire – Alaska) (1952) – adventure writing
Terres et Peuples Incas (Inca Lands and Peoples) (1955)
Le Vent des Pins (1958), translated as Welcome Honorable Visitors: a novel by Jean Stewart (Putnam, 1960)
Terres Saintes et Profanes (Lands Holy and Profane) (1960)
Les Veuves de Santiago (The Widows of Santiago) (1962)
Hong-Kong, Chine en sursis (Hong Kong, A Reprieve for China) (1963)
Secouons le cocotier (Let's Shake the Coconut Tree) (1966) – travel writing
Secouons le cocotier : 2, Punch Caraïbe (Let's Shake the Coconut Tree 2: Caribbean Punch) (1970) – travel writing
Bienvenue Honorables Visiteurs (le Vent des pins) (Welcome Honorable Visitors) (1970) – novel
Le Tam-Tam de Jonathan (Jonathan's Drum) (1971) – nouvelles
L'Armada de la Dernière Chance (Last-Chance Armada) (1972)
Le Camp des Saints (1973), translated as The Camp of the Saints by Norman Shapiro (Scribner, 1975; The Social Contract Press, 1995, {{ISBN|1-881780-07-4}}) – novel
La Hache des Steppes (The Steppes Axe) (1974)
Journal Peau Rouge (Red Skin Journal) (1975)
Nuage Blanc et les Peaux-Rouges d'aujourd'hui (White Cloud and the Redskins of Today) (1975) – by Aliette and Jean Raspail
Le Jeu du Roi (The King's Game) (1976) – novel
Boulevard Raspail (Raspail Boulevard) (1977) – columns
Les Peaux-rouges aujourd'hui (Redskins Today) (1978)
Septentrion (North) (1979), translated as Septentrion (Sunny Lou Publishing, 2022, {{ISBN|978-1-95539-223-5}}) – novel
Bleu caraïbe et citrons verts : mes derniers voyages aux Antilles (Caribbean Blue and Green Lemons: My Last Trips to the Antilles) (1980)
Les Antilles, d'île en île (The Antilles, From Island to Island) (1980)
Moi, Antoine de Tounens, roi de Patagonie (I, Antoine of Tounens, King of Patagonia) (1981) – novel
Les Hussards : histoires exemplaires (The Hussars: Representative Stories) (1982)
Les Yeux d'Irène (Irene's Eyes) (1984) – novel
Le Président (The President) (1985) – novel
Qui se souvient des hommes... (1986), translated as Who Will Remember the People...: A Novel. Translated by J. Leggatt (Mercury House, 1988, {{ISBN|0-916515-42-7}}) – novel. UK paperback published under alternative title The People (1988).
L'Île bleue (1988), translated by J. Leggatt as Blue Island: A Novel (Mercury House, 1991, {{ISBN|0-916515-99-0}})
Pêcheurs de Lune (Moon Fishers) (1990)
Sire (Sire) (1990) – novel
Vive Venise (Long Live Venice) (1992) – by Aliette and Jean Raspail
Sept cavaliers quittèrent la ville au crépuscule par la porte de l'Ouest qui n'était plus gardée (Seven Riders Left the City at Dusk through the Western Gate, Which Was No Longer Guarded) (1993) – novel (commonly called Sept cavaliers...)
L'Anneau du pêcheur (The Ring of the Fisherman) (1995) – novel
Hurrah Zara ! (Hooray Zara!) (1998) – novel
Le Roi au-delà de la mer (The King Over the Water) (2000) – novel
Adiós, Tierra del Fuego (Goodbye, Tierra del Fuego) (2001) – travel writing
Le son des tambours sur la neige et autres nouvelles d'ailleurs (The Sound of Drums on Snow, and Other News from Elsewhere) (2002)
Les Royaumes de Borée (The Kingdoms of Borée) (2003) – novel
En canot sur les chemins d'eau du roi, une aventure en Amérique (2005) – travel writing
La Miséricorde (2019) – novel

Adaptations

Le Roi de Patagonie (1990), TV mini-series directed by Georges Campana and Stéphane Kurc{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0280363/fullcredits|title=Le roi de Patagonie (TV Mini Series 1990– ) - IMDb|website=IMDb }}
Le Jeu du roi (1991), TV film directed by Marc Evans{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0195845/|title = "Cinéma 16" le jeu du roi (TV Episode 1991) - IMDb| website=IMDb }}
L'Île bleue (2001), TV film directed by Nadine Trintignant{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0288334/|title = L'Île bleue (TV Movie 2001) - IMDb| website=IMDb }}
Sept cavaliers (2008–2010), comic book in three volumes by Jacques Terpant
Le Royaume de Borée (2011–2014), comic book in three volumes by Jacques Terpant

References

Sources

Jarvis GE. Raspail, racism, and migration: Implications for radicalization in a polarizing world. Transcultural Psychiatry. 2021;58(5):616-631. doi:10.1177/1363461520930921

Category:1925 births

Category:2020 deaths

Category:20th-century French male writers

Category:20th-century French novelists

Category:21st-century French male writers

Category:21st-century French novelists

Category:Anti-immigration activists

Category:French anti-communists

Category:French conspiracy theorists

Category:French counter-revolutionaries

Category:French explorers

Category:French male non-fiction writers