Ernest Pérochon
Ernest Pérochon (1885–1942) was a French writer who won the Prix Goncourt in 1920 for his novel Nêne. Initially a teacher, he left his career in education in 1921 to pursue writing. He wrote poems, novels (ranging from realism to science fiction), as well as children's literature.
Childhood and adolescence
Pérochon was born on 24 February 1885 in Courlay, Deux-Sèvres at Tyran Farm. He was raised as a Protestant in a region with an unusual religious make-up, living alongside both Royalist Catholic "chouans" from the Vendée and dissidents from "the little church" which had refused the authority of the 1801 Concordat signed by Napoleon and Pope Pius VII.
Pérochon was very attached to his home region and to family values. He described in his stories his love for the common people, "les cherche-pain" (bread seekers) in his home region of the Gâtine at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1897, Pérochon became a student at l’Ecole Primaire Supérieure in Bressuire, eleven kilometers north of Courlay.
Adulthood
In 1900, Pérochon enrolled at l’Ecole Normale in Parthenay (35 kilometers southeast of Courlay), and he later became an assistant primary teacher at Courlay before becoming a teacher at l’Ecole Primaire Supérieure in Parthenay. He served in the military in 1905 under the 114th Infantry Regiment in Saint-Maixent.
In 1907, Pérochon married Vanda Houmeau, who was also a teacher. He then moved to Saint-Paul-en-Gâtine where his only daughter, Simone, was born in 1908. In 1908, his first work was published by Clouzot in Niort. In 1909, he was published for a second time and his first novel, Les creux de maisons, in which he evoked the image of "les cherche-pain," was also serialized in the newspaper l’Humanité in this year.
In 2012, Pérochon's 1925 science fiction novel Les Hommes Frénétiques was translated by Brian Stableford as The Frenetic People. ISBN 978-1-61227-118-7
Death
In 1914, Pérochon returned to teaching in Vouillé. After being called up to the army, he suffered a heart attack on the front lines. In 1920, his novel Nêne, published by Clouzot, earned him the Prix Goncourt. The following year, he retired from teaching for good and moved to Niort.
In 1940, Pérochon refused to collaborate with the Vichy press and two of his novels were banned. He was threatened by the Vichy Prefect, and the Gestapo watched him closely. He concealed his anxiety from his family. He died on 10 February 1942 from another heart attack at age 57.
Anecdote
In 1935, Pérochon's daughter, Simone, married Delphin Debenest, who was also involved in the Resistance during World War II. A soldier in 1940, this intelligence agent in the Franco-Belgian Resistance was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Buchenwald and then to Kommando in Holzen from which he succeeded in escaping. During the Nuremberg Trials, this extraordinary man acted as deputy prosecutor. He was also a magistrate in Niort and Poitiers and won numerous French and Belgian military decorations.
Novels (selected)
- Les Creux-De-Maisons (1912)
- Les hommes frénétiques (1925) (translated in 2012 by Brian Stableford as "The Frenetic People")
- Nêne (1920) - Prix Goncourt (translated in 1922)
- Le Chemin de plaine (1920)
- La Parcelle 32 (1922) (translated in 1923 by Frances C. Fay)
- Les Ombres (1923)
- Les Gardiennes (1924) (made into a film of the same name in 2017)
Homage / Tributes
On 31 March 1985 the public school of Tour Nivelle (in Courlay) held a commemoration ceremony for the 100th birthday of Pérochon which was well-attended by the public, and many key figures were there. Under the High Patronage of the Minister of National Education and Culture, numerous speeches were given, including one by Mr. Leblond-Zola, grandson of Émile Zola. For this occasion, a classroom from the time when Pérochon was a student (and later a teacher) at Tour Nivelle was reconstructed. People have visited this place from then on, and it can still be visited today.
This marked the beginning of the year of Pérochon which was celebrated with many cultural events in the Deux-Sèvres as well as with shows and displays relating to the works of Pérochon such as "l’homme frénétique" (The Frenzied Man), "les creux de maisons," and "les gardiennes" (The Caretakers).
The high school in Parthenay, a group of schools in Niort and in Cerizay, the municipal library in Echiré and many streets in the department of the Deux-Sèvres are named in memory of this French writer.
References
External links
- Works by or about Ernest Pérochon at Internet Archive
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- 1903 John Antoine Nau
- 1904 Léon Frapié
- 1905 Claude Farrère
- 1906 Jérôme Tharaud and Jean Tharaud
- 1907 Émile Moselly
- 1908 Francis de Miomandre
- 1909 Marius-Ary Leblond
- 1910 Louis Pergaud
- 1911 Alphonse de Châteaubriant
- 1912 André Savignon
- 1913 Marc Elder
- 1914 Adrien Bertrand
- 1915 René Benjamin
- 1916 Henri Barbusse
- 1917 Henry Malherbe
- 1918 Georges Duhamel
- 1919 Marcel Proust
- 1920 Ernest Pérochon
- 1921 René Maran
- 1922 Henri Béraud
- 1923 Lucien Fabre
- 1924 Thierry Sandre
- 1925 Maurice Genevoix
- 1926 Henri Deberly
- 1927 Maurice Bedel
- 1928 Maurice Constantin-Weyer
- 1929 Marcel Arland
- 1930 Henri Fauconnier
- 1931 Jean Fayard
- 1932 Guy Mazeline
- 1933 André Malraux
- 1934 Roger Vercel
- 1935 Joseph Peyré
- 1936 Maxence Van der Meersch
- 1937 Charles Plisnier
- 1938 Henri Troyat
- 1939 Philippe Hériat
- 1940 Francis Ambrière
- 1941 Henri Pourrat
- 1942 Marc Bernard
- 1943 Marius Grout
- 1944 Elsa Triolet
- 1945 Jean-Louis Bory
- 1946 Jean-Jacques Gautier
- 1947 Jean-Louis Curtis
- 1948 Maurice Druon
- 1949 Robert Merle
- 1950 Paul Colin
- 1951 Julien Gracq
- 1952 Béatrix Beck
- 1953 Pierre Gascar
- 1954 Simone de Beauvoir
- 1955 Roger Ikor
- 1956 Romain Gary
- 1957 Roger Vailland
- 1958 Francis Walder
- 1959 André Schwarz-Bart
- 1960 Vintilă Horia
- 1961 Jean Cau
- 1962 Anna Langfus
- 1963 Armand Lanoux
- 1964 Georges Conchon
- 1965 Jacques Borel
- 1966 Edmonde Charles-Roux
- 1967 André Pieyre de Mandiargues
- 1968 Bernard Clavel
- 1969 Félicien Marceau
- 1970 Michel Tournier
- 1971 Jacques Laurent
- 1972 Jean Carrière
- 1973 Jacques Chessex
- 1974 Pascal Lainé
- 1975 Émile Ajar (Romain Gary)
- 1976 Patrick Grainville
- 1977 Didier Decoin
- 1978 Patrick Modiano
- 1979 Antonine Maillet
- 1980 Yves Navarre
- 1981 Lucien Bodard
- 1982 Dominique Fernandez
- 1983 Frédérick Tristan
- 1984 Marguerite Duras
- 1985 Yann Queffélec
- 1986 Michel Host
- 1987 Tahar Ben Jelloun
- 1988 Érik Orsenna
- 1989 Jean Vautrin
- 1990 Jean Rouaud
- 1991 Pierre Combescot
- 1992 Patrick Chamoiseau
- 1993 Amin Maalouf
- 1994 Didier Van Cauwelaert
- 1995 Andreï Makine
- 1996 Pascale Roze
- 1997 Patrick Rambaud
- 1998 Paule Constant
- 1999 Jean Echenoz
- 2000 Jean-Jacques Schuhl
- 2001 Jean-Christophe Rufin
- 2002 Pascal Quignard
- 2003 Jacques-Pierre Amette
- 2004 Laurent Gaudé
- 2005 François Weyergans
- 2006 Jonathan Littell
- 2007 Gilles Leroy
- 2008 Atiq Rahimi
- 2009 Marie NDiaye
- 2010 Michel Houellebecq
- 2011 Alexis Jenni
- 2012 Jérôme Ferrari
- 2013 Pierre Lemaitre
- 2014 Lydie Salvayre
- 2015 Mathias Énard
- 2016 Leïla Slimani
- 2017 Éric Vuillard
- 2018 Nicolas Mathieu
- 2019 Jean-Paul Dubois
- 2020 Hervé Le Tellier
- 2021 Mohamed Mbougar Sarr
- 2022 Brigitte Giraud
- 2023 Jean-Baptiste Andrea