Mark, Some answers about Lé¯ Malet.
- He started as a mystery writer by writing for second grade
publishers during the war (1941). Before this, he was mainly
publishing poems and surrealist texts in avant-garde
publications. Because there was a ban on everything American
and English, in publishing, films ..etc, since the Germans
occupied France (mid 1940), many publishers tried to find
local replacements for escapist and popular lit of
Anglo-Saxon origin. Mystery lit, highly in favor before the
war in France, was one of their targets as many Anglo-Saxon
authors were out of the market (many new French mystery
authors took an English pseudo under publishers pressure- so
did also Malet at his beginnings under the name of Frank
Harding and Leo Latimer). Paper rationing was a problem, but
never really stopped the local publishing (1945 was more
critical year for this problem).
"120 rue de la Gare" was first published end 1943. Next Burma
novel (Nestor Burma contre CQFD) was published in 1945 Malet
used also many pseudonyms to produce novels in several genre
of popular lit all along WW2 and he pursued also his more
literary publishing of poems etc.
- In May 1940, when the war began in France, Malet was
preventively jailed in Rennes "as subversive element" (as
many others) by the government (all this because Malet
adhered to pacifist views and joined petitions against war.
He was also in contact with intellectual anarchists). One
month later he was freed by the French prison authorities as
the German were successful with their invasion and took over
the city of Rennes. Ironically he was captured by the Germans
when on the road, and finally sent to a Stalag in Germany. He
was freed due to health problems around mid-1941. Malet never
disclosed to the Germans that he was not with the army and
why (as this could have been worse for him).
-Malet knew Hammet's works before the war (Hammett was
already translated in France) and declared often his
admiration for this American author. He probably knew Latimer
as well (see one of his pseudos). I doubt he knew Chandler's
novel before the war, as you correctly suggest. But later,
Malet declared a few times that his preferred author was
Chandler (curio: The Big Sleep was translated by Boris Vian
in 1948, for Serie Noire). He was also an avid reader of
mystery lit, but we do not have details about what he exactly
was reading during the pre-war years.
-you will find surrealist references in many of Malet's
novels. He joined the Parisian surrealist movement in 1931
and knew Breton, Dali et al, meeting them at the famous
café ¦quot;Cyrano"… he took part to surrealist events,
exhibitions, signed some manifests…etc and published
surrealist texts, all before the war.
(Malet explained his life in many interviews. Francis
Lacassin -French essayist, popular lit specialist- made a
short chronology that I consulted to refresh my memory about
certain dates)
Hope this helps.
E.Borgers Hard-Boiled Mysteries http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6384
At 20:59 27-07-03 -0400, you wrote:
>I'm about half way through Leo Malet's first, 120 Rue
de Gare, from
>1943. I'm really enjoying it, but I have a few
questions:
>
>The little bio in the front of the Pan translation
wrote: "In 1943,
>inspired by the American writers Raymond Chandler and
Dashiell Hammett,
>he created Nestor Burma, . . ." How well distributed
were Hammett and
>Chandler in France? Sure, Hammett came out earlier,
but Chandler's
>first novel, The Big Sleep, came out in 1939. Did it
really get
>translated and distributed in France at the beginning
of the war? The
>book talks a lot about rationing. Wasn't paper
rationed, too? Did the
>pulps with Chandler's earlier stories make it to
France?
>
>There is also a gap in Malet's bio between 1940 and
1943. Was he,
>perhaps, a POW as his hero is at the beginning of
this book?
>
>Finally, is there really a rue Alfred-Jarry in Lyon?
Or is it just a
>former surrealist's nod to the author of the Ubu
plays (one of which was
>much later adopted as the name of the great punk band
Pere Ubu)? I mean
>a major plot point revolves around the bibliography
of another
>surrealist favorite, the Marquis de Sade.
>
>Mark
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