Joseph Kessel

French writer

Joseph Kessel

Kessel in June 1948

Born| (1898-02-10)10 February 1898
Villa Clara, Entre Ríos, Argentina
Died| 23 July 1979(1979-07-23) (aged 81)
Avernes, Val-d'Oise, France
Allegiance|  France
Free France
Service/branch|  French Naval Aviation
Free French Air Forces
Years of service| 1914–1918
1939–1945
Battles/wars|

* World War I
* World War II

Awards| Legion of Honour
Other work| Journalist
Writer

Joseph Kessel (10 February 1898 – 23 July 1979), also known as "Jef", was a French journalist and novelist. He was a member of the Académie française and Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour.

## Biography[edit]

Kessel was born to a Jewish family in Villa Clara, Entre Ríos, Argentina, because of the constant journeys of his father, a Litvak physician. From 1905 to 1908, Joseph Kessel lived the first years of his childhood in Orenburg, Russia, before the family moved to France in 1908. He studied in lycée Masséna, Nice and lycée Louis-le-Grand, Paris and took part in the First World War as an aviator. He was also an aviator during the Second World War, in the Free French Groupe de Bombardement n° 1/20 "Lorraine" (342 Squadron RAF) with RAF Bomber Command,[citation needed] with Romain Gary, who was also a talented French novelist.

Kessel wrote several novels and books that were later represented in the cinema, notably Belle de Jour (by Luis Buñuel in 1967) and L'armée des ombres (Army of Shadows) (by Jean-Pierre Melville in 1969). In 1943 he and his nephew Maurice Druon translated Anna Marly's song Chant des Partisans into French from its original Russian. The song became one of the anthems of Free French Forces during the Second World War.

Kessel was elected to the Académie française in 1962 and died on 23 July 1979[1] in Avernes, Val-d'Oise of a ruptured aneurysm. He is buried in Paris in the Cimetière du Montparnasse. The Joseph-Kessel Prize (Prix Joseph Kessel) is a prestigious prize in French language literature, given to "a book of a high literary value written in French". The jury counts or has counted among its members Tahar Ben Jelloun, Jean-Marie Drot, Michèle Kahn, Pierre Haski, Gilles Lapouge, Michel Le Bris, Érik Orsenna, Patrick Rambaud, Jean-Christophe Rufin, André Velter and Olivier Weber.

## Bibliography[edit]

* La steppe rouge (1922)
* The Crew (1923)
* Au camp des vaincus ou la critique du 11 mai  (1924)
* Mary de Cork (1925)
* Les captifs (1926; Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française)
* Nuits de princes (1927)
* Belle de Jour (1928; it inspired Luis Buñuel's 1967 movie of the same name)
* Vent de sable (1929)
* Fortune carrée (1932)
* Le coup de grâce [fr] (1931; made into the movie Sirocco in 1951 with Humphrey Bogart)
* Wagon-lit (1932)
* La Passante du Sans-Souci (1936; turned into a movie by Jacques Rouffio in 1982)
* Hollywood, Ville mirage (Gallimard, NRF, 1936)
* Mermoz (1938)
* L'Armée des ombres (1943; adapted for a movie by Jean-Pierre Melville in 1969); Army of Shadows (Contra Mundum Press: 2017), featuring an intro by Stuart Kendall
* Le Bataillon du ciel (Sky Battalion), (1946; turned into a movie by Alexander Esway in 1947): Free French SAS paratroopers in Brittany in Summer 1944
* Le tour du malheur (1950)
* Les Amants du Tage (1954)
* La Vallée des Rubis (1955)
* Le lion (English translation: The Lion; 1958)
* Les mains du miracle (Gallimard, 1960). (English translation: The Man with the Miraculous Hands. Translated by Weaver, Helen. Farrar, Straus and Cudahy. 1961. OCLC 630284.)
* Les cavaliers (1967) (English translation: The Horsemen. Translated by Patrick O'Brian. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1968) (filmed as The Horsemen in 1971.)
* Partout un ami (1972)
* Des hommes (1972)
* Les temps sauvages (1975)
* The escape

## Filmography[edit]

* The Crew, directed by Maurice Tourneur (France, 1928, based on the novel The Crew)
* Nuits de princes [fr], directed by Marcel L'Herbier (France, 1930, based on the novel Nuits de princes)
* The Crew, directed by Anatole Litvak (France, 1935, based on the novel The Crew)
* The Woman I Love, directed by Anatole Litvak (1937, based on the novel The Crew)
* Nuits de princes [fr], directed by Vladimir Strizhevsky (France, 1938, based on the novel Nuits de princes)
* Le Bataillon du ciel, directed by Alexander Esway (France, 1947, based on the novel Le Bataillon du ciel)
* Sirocco, directed by Curtis Bernhardt (1951, based on the novel Le coup de grâce)
* The Lovers of Lisbon, directed by Henri Verneuil (France, 1955, based on the novel Les Amants du Tage)
* Fortune carrée [fr], directed by Bernard Borderie (France, 1955, based on the novel Fortune carrée)
* The Lion, directed by Jack Cardiff (1962, based on the novel The Lion)
* Belle de Jour, directed by Luis Buñuel (France, 1967, based on the novel Belle de Jour)
* Army of Shadows, directed by Jean-Pierre Melville (France, 1969, based on the novel L'Armée des ombres)
* The Horsemen, directed by John Frankenheimer (1971, based on the novel Les Cavaliers)
* The Passerby, directed by Jacques Rouffio (France, 1982, based on the novel La Passante du Sans-Souci)

### Screenwriter[edit]

* Cease Firing (dir. Jacques de Baroncelli, France, 1934)
* Mayerling (dir. Anatole Litvak, France, 1936)
* Les Bateliers de la Volga (dir. Vladimir Strizhevsky, France, 1936)
* La Peur (dir. Victor Tourjansky, France, 1936)
* The Secrets of the Red Sea (dir. Richard Pottier, France, 1937)
* The Man from Niger (dir. Jacques de Baroncelli, France, 1940)
* At the Grand Balcony (dir. Henri Decoin, France, 1949)
* Le Grand Cirque (dir. Georges Péclet, France, 1950)
* Act of Love (dir. Anatole Litvak, 1953)
* Oasis (dir. Yves Allégret, France, 1955)
* La Passe du diable [fr] (dir. Pierre Schoendoerffer and Jacques Dupont, France, 1958)
* The Night of the Generals (dir. Anatole Litvak, 1967)

## References[edit]

1. ^ "Obituaries". Cross & Cockade Journal. the Society. 20: 380. 1979.

## External links[edit]

* Joseph Kessel at IMDb
* Biography at the Académie française (in French)
* Plaisir Litteraire:  an interesting contribution about the youth of Joseph Kessel's father (in French)
* http://www.rts.ch/archives/tv/culture/preface/3467832-joseph-kessel.html

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Académie française seat 27

* Abel Servien (1634)
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* Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle (1691)
* Antoine-Louis Séguier (1757)
* Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (1803)
* Étienne Aignan (1814)
* Alexandre Soumet (1824)
* Ludovic Vitet (1845)
* Elme Marie Caro (1874)
* Gabriel Paul Othenin de Cléron, comte d'Haussonville (1888)
* Auguste Nompar de Caumont (1925)
* Joseph Kessel (1962)
* Michel Droit (1980)
* Pierre Nora (2001)

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Laureates of the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française

1915–1925|

* 1915 Paul Acker
* 1916 Louis de Blois [fr]
* 1917 Charles Géniaux [fr]
* 1918 Camille Mayran [fr]
* 1919 Pierre Benoit
* 1920 André Corthis
* 1921 Pierre Villetard [fr]
* 1922 Francis Carco
* 1923 Alphonse de Châteaubriant
* 1924 Émile Henriot
* 1925 François Duhourcau

1926–1950|

* 1926 François Mauriac
* 1927 Joseph Kessel
* 1928 Jean Balde [fr]
* 1929 André Demaison [fr]
* 1930 Jacques de Lacretelle
* 1931 Henri Pourrat
* 1932 Jacques Chardonne
* 1933 Roger Chauviré
* 1934 Paule Régnier
* 1935 Albert Touchard
* 1936 Georges Bernanos
* 1937 Guy de Pourtalès
* 1938 Jean de La Varende
* 1939 Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
* 1940 Édouard Peisson [fr]
* 1941 Robert Bourget-Pailleron
* 1942 Jean Blanzat
* 1943 Joseph-Henri Louwyck [fr]
* 1944 Pierre Lagarde [fr]
* 1945 Marc Blancpain [fr]
* 1946 Jean Orieux [fr]
* 1947 Philippe Hériat
* 1948 Yves Gandon [fr]
* 1949 Yvonne Pagniez
* 1950 Joseph Jolinon

1951–1975|

* 1951 Bernard Barbey [fr]
* 1952 Henri Castillou [fr]
* 1953 Jean Hougron
* 1954 Pierre Moinot / Paul Mousset [fr]
* 1955 Michel de Saint Pierre [fr]
* 1956 Paul Guth
* 1957 Jacques de Bourbon Busset
* 1958 Henri Queffélec
* 1959 Gabriel d'Aubarède
* 1960 Christian Murciaux [fr]
* 1961 Phạm Văn Ký [fr; vi]
* 1962 Michel Mohrt
* 1963 Robert Margerit
* 1964 Michel Droit
* 1965 Jean Husson [fr]
* 1966 François Nourissier
* 1967 Michel Tournier
* 1968 Albert Cohen
* 1969 Pierre Moustiers
* 1970 Bertrand Poirot-Delpech
* 1971 Jean d'Ormesson
* 1972 Patrick Modiano
* 1973 Michel Déon
* 1974 Kléber Haedens
* 1975

1976–2000|

* 1976 Pierre Schoendoerffer
* 1977 Camille Bourniquel
* 1978 Pascal Jardin
* 1979 Henri Coulonges
* 1980 Louis Gardel
* 1981 Jean Raspail
* 1982 Vladimir Volkoff
* 1983 Liliane Guignabodet [fr]
* 1984 Jacques-Francis Rolland [fr]
* 1985 Patrick Besson
* 1986 Pierre-Jean Rémy
* 1987 Frédérique Hébrard
* 1988 François-Olivier Rousseau
* 1989 Geneviève Dormann
* 1990 Paule Constant
* 1991 François Sureau
* 1992 Franz-Olivier Giesbert
* 1993 Philippe Beaussant
* 1994 Frédéric Vitoux
* 1995 Alphonse Boudard
* 1996 Calixthe Beyala
* 1997 Patrick Rambaud
* 1998 Anne Wiazemsky
* 1999 François Taillandier / Amélie Nothomb
* 2000 Pascal Quignard

2001–present|

* 2001 Éric Neuhoff
* 2002 Marie Ferranti
* 2003 Jean-Noël Pancrazi
* 2004 Bernard du Boucheron
* 2005 Henriette Jelinek [fr]
* 2006 Jonathan Littell
* 2007 Vassilis Alexakis
* 2008 Marc Bressant [fr]
* 2009 Pierre Michon
* 2010 Éric Faye [fr]
* 2011 Sorj Chalandon
* 2012 Joël Dicker
* 2013 Christophe Ono-dit-Biot [fr]
* 2014 Adrien Bosc [fr]
* 2015 Hédi Kaddour / Boualem Sansal
* 2016 Adélaïde de Clermont-Tonnerre
* 2017 Daniel Rondeau
* 2018 Camille Pascal
* 2019 Laurent Binet
* 2020 Étienne de Montety
* 2021 François-Henri Désérable
* 2022 Giuliano da Empoli

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