Gaston Chérau (6 November 1872 – 20 April 1937) was a French man of letters and journalist.
Biography
The son of an industrialist, Gaston Chérau died in Boston during a lecture tour. A journalist and chronicler, he regularly gave the press his impressions of travel.
In 1914, he was a war reporter for the newspaper L'Illustration in Belgium and the North of France.
A fertile novelist of the province, his pen is very influenced by the Berry where he had family roots, stayed a part of his childhood, and where he returned assiduously on vacation in a second home until the end of his life.
He was also interested in cinema and wrote the dialogues of the film Les Deux mondes (1930) directed by Ewald Andreas Dupont.
Literary work
Cover of Le remous
He is the author of about forty novels.
1901: Les grandes époques de M. Thébault, Chamuel; Justin Clairbois remained in the state of manuscript
1921: Valentine Pacquault is at the same time his greatest success and his most famous work
Sa destinée, novel
Concorde !… 6 février 1934
1935: Le Pimpet, illustrated tale by Roger Reboussin [fr], Paris, Delagrave
1934: Le pays qui a perdu son âme, novel, Paris, Ferenczi
1930: Le Flambeau des Riffault, novel, Paris, Calmann-Lévy, Paris, Fasquelle
1929: Apprends-moi à être amoureuse, tales, Ferenczi
1930: La volupté du mal, novel, Ferenczi
1931: Les cercles du printemps, tales, Ferenczi
La maison du quai, novel
L'enfant du pays, novel (Éd. L'Illustration, revue La Petite Illustration, four paperbacks: n° 561, 23 January 1932; n° 562, 30 January 1932; n° 563, 6 February 1932 ; n° 564, 13 February 1932 ; illustrations by Georges Paul Leroux [fr]
La voix de Werther, tales
1932: Celui du Bois Jacqueline, novel, Ferenczi
Jacques Petitpont, novel for youth
La saison balnéaire de M. Thebault, novel, Sevin et Rey
1903: Monseigneur voyage, novel, Paris, Ollendorf, Stock, 1910, Flammarion, 1920, 1921, 1927, 1930, 1948, 1967, then Ferenczi, 1931); The title character may have been inspired by Charles-Amable de La Tour d'Auvergne Lauraguais (1826–1879) archbishop of Bourges quoted at his death in a letter from Maurice Sand; The planned sequel, entitled L'Apprenti (1902?) was not published
1914: Le Remous [fr], sequel to L'Oiseau de proie, Plon
1929: Fra Camboulive, novel, Flammarion
1927: Valentine Pacquault, novel (Paris, Mornay - Les Beaux Livres, illustrations by Edelman)
1923: La Despélouquéro, tales, Plon
La Maison de Patrice Perrier, novel
1926: Le vent du destin, tales, Plon
1927: L'égarée sur la route, novel, Ferenczi
L'ombre du maître, novel
L'enlèvement de la princesse, novel
1934: Chasses et plein air en France, short stories, Stock
1937: Séverin Dunastier, novel, Paris, Albin Michel
A generous epicurean, he prefaced the Histoire du cognac by Robert Delamain [fr] (Stock, 1935), an archeologist and writer from an old family of merchants in brandy from Jarnac, whose younger brother Jacques (1874–1953), author among others of Portraits d'oiseaux (Stock, 1938 and 1952) was the brother-in-law of the writer Jacques Boutelleau (1884–1968), called Jacques Chardonne.
He wrote a number of works for children such as Jacques Petitpont, roi de Madagascar (J. Ferenczi, 1928, ill. d'Avelot), L'enlèvement de la princesse (Hachette, 1934, ill. André Pécoud ) or Contes et nouvelles de Gascogne (Bibliothèque Nelson illustrée, 1938, ill. Georges Dutriac).[1]
It was, at the Goncourt lunches, the most imaginable charming friend. He animated the table with his rapid and colorful stories. He loved to laugh broadly, but one could feel, behind his laughter, a harsh understanding of life. He wrote, in my opinion, two masterpieces: Champi-Tortu and Petit Dagrello. When I told him, he seemed surprised. His tales of hunter and fisherman have an extraordinary flavor. He was a gourmand, and repeatedly regaled us with cheese-cakes from Bélâbre. He knew and loved the peasant world. His death is a real mourning for the Letters and for his colleagues, whom he had pleasure in compelling. We, the "Goncourt", will often think of him, his joyful entrance, his clairvoyant and sensitive eyes
Hommage à Gaston Chérau à l'occasion du cinquantenaire de sa mort, in "Bulletin de la Société Historique et Scientifique des Deux-Sèvres", n°1109, tome XX, 1987
Catalog of the exhibition Gaston Chérau, romancier de la province française, 1872-1937 at the municipal library of Niort, from 24 October 1987 to 15 December 1987, et à la bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Paris, from 5 February 1988 to 9 April 1988, with bibliography
Françoise Bertrand-Py, "Argenton et l'œuvre de G. Chérau", in Argenton et son histoire, n° 5, 1988, Cercle d'histoire d'Argenton, Argenton-sur-Creuse
Madeleine Naud, "Sur les pas de Gaston Chérau", in Argenton et son histoire, n° 9, 1992, Cercle d'histoire d'Argenton, Argenton-sur-Creuse
Pierre Brunaud [fr] and Gérard Coulon, Argenton-sur-Creuse et ses écrivains, 135 p., p. 37-41, Paris, Royer, 1996 ISBN2-908670-41-0.
Pierre Schill, Réveiller l’archive d’une guerre coloniale. Photographies et écrits de Gaston Chérau, correspondant de guerre lors du conflit italo-turc pour la Libye (1911-1912), Créaphis, 2018, 480p.et 230 photographies. A book about his two experiences as a war correspondent in Tripolitania and at the beginning of the First World War.
References
^Source: Diament, Nic (1993). Dictionnaire des écrivains français pour la jeunesse : 1914-1991 (in French). Paris: L'École des loisirs [fr]. p. 783. ISBN2-211-07125-2.
