Pascal Pia

Who was Pascal Pia?

Pascal Pia, born Pierre Durand, was a French writer, journalist, illustrator and scholar. He also used the pseudonyms Pascal Rose, Pascal Fely and others.

In 1922 he published the erotic work Les Princesses de Cythère. His La Muse en rut, a collection of erotic poems, appeared in 1928. He also illustrated erotic works, such as the Songs of Bilitis. In 1938 he founded the leftist journal Alger républicain in Algiers. The journal was forbidden in 1939. During World War II Pia participated in the French Resistance and in 1944 he became chief editor of the clandestine resistance journal Combat, using the pseudonym Pontault. He said "We will try to make a reasonable newspaper. And as the world is absurd, it will fail."

Albert Camus worked as a journalist at the Alger républicain and later also at Combat. Pia and Camus became friends, and Camus dedicated his 1942 essay The Myth of Sisyphus to Pia. A collection of their correspondence was published in 2000. Pascal Pia was also a good friend of André Malraux.

Pia was a member of the Collège de 'pataphysique. He often expressed absurdist and nihilistic sentiments.