An edition of With the stroke of a pen (2002)
With the stroke of a pen
a story of ambition, greed, infidelity, and the murder of French publisher Robert Denoël
By A. Louise Staman
Publish Date
2002
Publisher
Thomas Dunne Books
Language
eng
Pages
354
Description:
"On the night of 2 December 1945 a famous publisher and three lawyers met together on a deserted Paris street corner. That meeting went very well for the lawyers. But the publisher got a bullet in his back." "A Belgian, Robert Denoel came to Paris in 1926 with virtually no money or contacts. Within a few years he had founded his own publishing house, Les Editions Denoel, and by the time of World War II he was one of the most significant figures in the history of French publishing. But Denoel was never good at following the rules. Under the Nazi Occupation he published the Communist Louis Aragon and the Russian Jew Elsa Triolet (both working for the French Resistance), as well as the anti-Semitic Celine and the Fascist Lucien Rebatet. Caring more about great literature than political correctness, Denoel made fateful decisions that often put him at odds with the Nazis, the Vichy government, and even with liberated France. His death, and the subsequent acquisition of his company by his archrival, involves a web of crime, murder, betrayal, love, and cover-up not often found even in fiction." "Using sensitive documents recently unsealed by the French government, A. Louise Staman exposes the events leading up to the infamous murder and illuminates a fascinating group of writers and publishers against the backdrop of France during the roaring twenties, turbulent thirties, the Nazi Occupation, and the Liberation."--Jacket.