Hervé Bazin

Hervé Bazin (; 17 April 191117 February 1996) was a French writer, whose best-known novels covered semi-autobiographical topics of teenage rebellion and dysfunctional families.

Biography Bazin, born Jean-Pierre Hervé-Bazin in Angers, Maine-et-Loire, France came from a high-bourgeois Catholic family. He was the great-nephew of the writer René Bazin. He opposed his authoritarian mother, ran away several times during his teens, and refused Catholic teachings. At the age of 20 he broke up with his family.

Leaving his home for Paris, he took a degree in literature at the Sorbonne. During fifteen years of writing poetry with little success, Bazin worked in many small jobs. Notable work of this period included founding a poetic review, la Coquille (The Shell, only eight volumes), named after the medieval poet-beggars, the coquillards of Villon's days,

In 1995, he gave his manuscripts and letters to the record office of the town of Nancy, which already owned the archives of the Goncourt brothers, who originated from the town. Bazin died in Angers.

Due to a juridical imbroglio, the six children of his first marriages obtained, against the will of his last spouse and last son, the auction of the archive at the Hôtel Drouot on 29 October 2004. With help from the district's authorities, the university library of Angers managed to preempt almost the whole of the estate, meaning 22 manuscripts and about 9000 letters which were made available to the research community, as the author wished.

Orthography and punctuation In his 1966 essay Plumons l’Oiseau ("Let's pluck the bird"): Bazin proposed a nearly phonemic orthography for the French language called "l’ortografiǝ lojikǝ" (logical orthography). Letter Name Name (IPA) Note

Punctuation marks

He also proposed six new "points d’intonation" (punctuation marks):

Example: Standard orthography Ortografiǝ lojikǝJ’aime, dit l’amant, Je parle, dit le député, J’enseigne, dit le professeur, Je règne, dit le roi, Je crois, dit le moine, Je pense, dit le philosophe,

Je parlǝ, di le député, J’ãsèñǝ, di le profèsœr,

Je pãsǝ, di le filozofǝ, Je trwvǝ, di le savã...

Published works

Jour, poems, 1947 A la poursuite d'Iris, poems, 1948 Vipère au poing (Viper in the Fist), autobiographical novel, 1948 La Tête contre les murs, novel, publié en 1949 , autobiographical novel, 1950 Le bureau des mariages, short stories, 1951 , novel, 1952 Humeurs, poems, 1953 Contre vents et marées, 1953 L'Huile sur le feu, novel, 1954 Qui j'ose aimer, novel, 1956 La fin des asiles, essay, 1959 Au nom du fils, novel, 1960 Chapeau bas, short stories, 1963 : Chapeau bas, Bouc émissaire, La hotte, M. le conseiller du coeur, Souvenirs d'un amnésique, Mansarde à louer, La Clope Plumons l'oiseau, essay, 1966 , novel, 1967 Les bienheureux de La Désolation, account, 1970 , autobiographical novel, 1972 Madame Ex, novel, 1975 Traits, 1976 Ce que je crois, 1977 Un feu dévore un autre feu, 1978 L'Église verte, novel, 1981 Qui est le prince?, 1981 Abécédaire, 1984 Le Démon de minuit, 1988 , novel, 1991 Le grand méchant doux, 1992 Le Neuvième jour, 1994