Léon Werth

Léon Werth (1878-1955) was a French writer and art critic, friend of Octave Mirbeau, then of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

World War I, colonization, French "collaboration" during World War II... Léon Werth wrote without kindness and with a great precision about the French society.

Saint-Exupery met Werth in 1931 and soon he became the closest friend Saint-Exupery had outside of his flying group of Aeropostale. Werth had not much in common with Exupery, he was anarchist, his father was Jew, and left Bolshevik supporter. Twenty-two years older than Saint-Exupery, with surrealistic writing style, author of twelve volumes, and many magazine pieces, he was opposite of what Saint-Exupery was.

Saint Exupery dedicated two books to him, ("Letter to a Hostage" and "The Little Prince") and referred to Werth in three more. The dedication in the preface of "The Little Prince" is one of the most charming dedications ever written. During the beginning of World War II, while writing "The Little Prince", Exupery lived in his apartment in downtown New York City, thinking about his France and his friends. Leon Werth spent the war unobtrusively in Saint-Amour, his village in Jura, a montain région close to Switzerland where he "was alone, cold and hungry", without many nice words about French refugees. Saint-Exupery returned to Europe in early 1943, "I cannot bear to be far from those who are hungry ... I am leaving in order to suffer and thereby be united with those who are dear to me."

At the end of World War II, which Antoine de Saint Exupery didn't live to see, Leon Werth said: "Peace, without Tonio (Exupery) isn't entirely peace." Leon Werth did not see the text for which he was so much responsible until five months after his friend's death, when Galimard sent him a special edition.

The Little Prince dedication

"To Leon Werth"

"I ask the children to forgive me for dedicating this book to a grown-up. I have a serious excuse: this grown-up is the best friend I have in the world. I have another excuse: this grown-up can understand everything, even books for children. I have a third excuse: he lives in France where he is hungry and cold. He needs to be comforted. If all these excuses are not enough, then I want to dedicate this book to the child whom this grown-up once was. All grown-ups were children first. (But few of them remember it.) So I correct my dedication:"

"To Leon Werth, When he was a little boy"

Books

"in italic, title's translation"

* 33 jours ("33 Days")
* Clavel chez les majors
* La maison blanche ("The White House")
* Clavel soldat ("Clavel soldier")
* Cochinchine
* Le destin de Marco
* Le monde et la ville ("The World and the City")
* Impressions d'audience
* Saint-Exupéry, tel que je l'ai connu ("Saint-Exupéry as I knew him")
* Caserne 1900
* Déposition / Journal 1940 - 1944
* Voyages avec ma pipe ("Travels With My Pipe")
* Une soirée à L'Olympia

Biography

"L'insoumis - Léon Werth" by Gilles Heuré.

External links

In French
* [http://gutenberg.ca/ebooks/werth-soiree/werth-soiree-00-h.html "Une soirée à l'Olympia", livre electronique]
* [http://www.viviane-hamy.fr/fiche-auteur.asp?A=27 Léon Wert on the website of Viviane Hamy Publishing house]
* [http://www.politis.fr/article1578.html Left french newspaper "Politis", january 2006]
* [http://www.bpi.fr/ress.php?id_c=32&id_r1=543&id_c2=32&id_rubrique1=113&id_rubrique2= Events in the Pompidou Center Library in Paris]
* [http://home.tele2.fr/michelmirbeau/Michel_Mirbeau_Werth.pdf Pierre Michel, "Octave Mirbeau et Léon Werth] .

References