Joseph KesselThe son of Samuel Kessel, a Jewish physician of Lithuanian origin, Joseph Kessel lived in Argentina during his early life and was then taken to Orenburg, on the Urals, where his parents lived from 1905 to 1908, before returning to France. His first wrk, La steppe rouge, was a collection of short stories about the Bolshevik Revolution. After The Crew (1923), he published Mary of Cork, The Captives (recipient of the Grand Prix for the Novel from the Académie Française in 1926), Nuits de princes, Les Coeurs Pure, Belle de Jour (made into a film by Bunuel), Fortune Square (which was the fictional version of his report Slave Market), The Children of Luck, as well as a biography of Mermoz, the heroic aviator who had been his friend, and other books. Kessel belonged to the crew that Pierre Lazareff had gathered at Paris-Soir, and which comprised the golden age of the great reporters. A war correspondent from 1939-40, after the defeat, he joined the Résistance (Carte network) with his nephew Maurice Druon. It was also with him that he secretly crossed the Pyrenees to London and joined the Free French Forces of General de Gaulle. In May 1943, the two men composed the words of the "Song of the Partisans," destined to become the rallying song of the Resistance, and Kessel published, in tribute to its fighters, The Army of Shadows (made into an iconic film by Jean-Pierre Melville). He would end the war as an aviation captain in a squadron that flew over France at night to maintain links with the Resistance and give it orders. Upon the Liberation, Kessel resumed his activity as a reporter, traveled to Palestine, Africa, Burma, and Afghanistan. It is this latter country that inspired his novel masterpiece, Les Cavaliers (1967). Kessel was elected to the French Academy on November 22, 1962. He died seventeen years later on July 23, 1979. Read More Read Less