Marcel Jouhandeau facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Marcel Jouhandeau
Born	July 26, 1888
Died	April 7, 1979
Occupation	writer

Marcel Jouhandeau (July 26, 1888 Guéret – April 7, 1979) was a French writer.

Biography

Born in Guéret, Creuse, France, Marcel Jouhandeau grew up in a world of women presided over by his grandmother. Under the influence of a young woman from the Carmel of Limoges, he embraced a spiritual form of Catholicism and considered entering the orders for a time. However, in 1908 he left for Paris where he studied first at the Lycée Henri-IV, and then at the Sorbonne, where he began to write. In 1912 he became a professor at a school at Passy.

In 1914, during a spiritual crisis, he burned his manuscripts. Once the crisis had passed, he turned again to writing. He created Pincegrain, the village chronicles that brought him his first literary success.

During World War I, he was a secretary in his hometown of Guéret. In 1924, he published Pincegrain, a chronicle of the inhabitants of Guéret.

At age 40, he married a dancer, Élisabeth (Elise) Toulemont, known as Caryathis, a friend of Jean Cocteau and Max Jacob. Subsequently, he undertook a work of Christian moralism (De l'abjection).

Jouhandeau and his wife adopted a girl named Céline, who gave birth to Jouhandeau's grandson, Marc. Following Élise's death in 1971, Jouhandeau lived his last days in Rueil-Malmaison with Marc.

In 1938, Jouhandeau published four anti-Semitic articles in a short volume, "Le Péril Juif" (The Jewish Peril). During the Nazi occupation of France, he accepted Goebbels' invitation to visit Germany.