Curated playlist
Writers from Paris
- VoltaireThe line Voltaire is most quoted for was written in 1906, long after he died.
- Jean-Paul SartreJean-Paul Sartre asked to be dropped as a Nobel nominee, then won anyway. His 1964 letter went unread.
- Eugène BurnoufEugène Burnouf died in 1852, the same year his Lotus Sutra translation finally appeared in print.
- Charles BaudelaireCharles Baudelaire never reached India, yet he told stories of riding elephants there.
- André GideA 1924 defense of his sexuality kept André Gide from ever being nominated to the Académie Française.
- Jean GenetIn 1949, facing a possible life sentence, Jean Genet was saved by a petition.
- Jean-Luc GodardJean-Luc Godard dropped his script and wrote dialogue day by day for the film Breathless.
- Esther DufloEsther Duflo was 46 when she became the youngest Nobel economics winner ever. She shared it in 2019.
- Claude Lévi-StraussClaude Lévi-Strauss died in 2009, and for four days the world did not know.
- Simone de BeauvoirSimone de Beauvoir's partnership with Sartre began on a bench outside the Louvre.
- Georges BatailleGeorges Bataille's secret society Acéphale never found an executioner. Every member had agreed to be the victim.
- Jacques LacanIn 1963, psychoanalysts stripped Jacques Lacan of the right to train new analysts.
- Alexis de TocquevilleAlexis de Tocqueville was sent to America to study prisons. He went far beyond that and wrote a book on democracy.
- François CatrouA Jesuit priest who founded a major journal also wrote a 21-volume history of Rome. François Catrou did both.
- Victor DuruyAt twenty-four, factory worker's son Victor Duruy taught a famous historian's class.
- Gabriel MarcelGabriel Marcel wrote at least thirty plays, but readers kept turning to his philosophy.
- Jules MicheletHistorian Jules Michelet was the first to use "Renaissance" for a whole era.
- George SteinerGeorge Steiner was born Francis George Steiner on the 23rd of April 1929. He was a literary critic, essayist, philosopher, novelist and educator, and he is described as both French and American. Harriet Harvey-Wood, a former literature…
- George CœdèsGeorge Cœdès brought the forgotten empire of Srivijaya back into history in 1918.