Louis Guilloux

Louis Guilloux (born January 15, 1899, St.-Brieuc, France—died October 14 1980, St.-Brieuc) was a French novelist who portrayed the social struggles of the people of his native Brittany. His work gave a harsh, disillusioned picture of the desolate lives of working men who sometimes achieved tragic grandeur.

Guilloux was no stranger to the life depicted in his novels, as his father was a cobbler and an active socialist. Guilloux won a scholarship to attend secondary school and worked in various jobs before becoming a journalist in Paris in 1919. His first novel, La Maison du peuple (“The People’s House”), appeared in 1927. He published three additional novels before writing his masterpiece, Le Sang noir (1935; Bitter Victory). Set in Guilloux’s hometown during World War I, it has as its central character an idealist embittered by experience, driven by his sense of the absurdity of existence to a point beyond hope or despair. Guilloux’s own left-wing ideals were severely tested by a visit to the Soviet Union with André Gide in 1936, but his hostility to fascism forced him into hiding in World War II. He won the Prix Populiste in 1942 with Le Pain des rêves (“The Bread of Dreams”) and was awarded the Grand Prix National des Lettres in 1967 and the Grand Prix de Littérature de l’Académie Française in 1973. Later books include Le Jeu de patience (1949; “The Game of Patience”), Les Batailles perdues (1960; “Lost Struggles”), and Salido suivi d’O.K., Joe! (1976; OK, Joe!).