Joseph Kessel

Novelist, Author

1898 – 1979

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Who was Joseph Kessel?

Joseph Kessel was a French journalist and novelist.

Kessel was born in Villa Clara, Entre Ríos, Argentina, because of the constant journeys of his father, a Lithuanian doctor of Jewish origin. Joseph Kessel lived the first years of his childhood in Orenburg, Russia, before the family moved to France in 1908. He studied in Nice and Paris, and took part in the First World War as an aviator.

Kessel wrote several novels and books that were later represented in the cinema, notably Belle de Jour. He was also a member of the Académie française from 1962 to 1979. In 1943 he and his nephew Maurice Druon translated Anna Marly's song Chant des Partisans into French from its original Russian. The song became one of the anthems of the Free French Forces during the Second World War.

Joseph Kessel died in Avernes, Val-d'Oise. He is buried in the Cimetière de Montparnasse in Paris.

The Joseph-Kessel Prize is a prestigious prize in french language literature, given to "a book of a high litterary value written in french". The jury counts or has counted among its members Tahar Ben Jelloun, Jean-Marie Drot, Michèle Kahn, Pierre Haski, Gilles Lapouge, Michel Le Bris, Erik Orsenna, Patrick Rambaud, Jean-Christophe Rufin, André Velter and Olivier Weber.

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Born
Feb 10, 1898
Villa Clara, Entre Ríos
Also known as
  • Joseph Kessel de l'Académie Française
  • J. Kessel
Parents
Siblings
Religion
  • Judaism
Ethnicity
  • Jewish people
Nationality
  • France
Profession
Education
  • Lycée Louis-le-Grand
Lived in
  • Entre Ríos Province
Died
Jul 23, 1979
Avernes
Resting place
Montparnasse Cemetery

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

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