Jean Blot

Alexandre Blokh , called Jean Blot, (31 March 1923, Moscow – 23 December 2019, Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois (Essonne)) was a French writer, translator, and senior civil servant of Russian origin.

Biography Blot came from two bourgeois families (St. Petersburg diamonds for his father, wholesale grocer for his mother). In the USSR of the twenties, his parents worked at the defense commissioner for his father, as a lawyer for street children for his mother. His family moved to Germany at the time of the NEP, then moved to Paris where he attended primary school. Sent to England to learn English for high school, he spent the war in France. A Russian and Jewish refugee, he fled to Lyon and engaged in the Resistance (Le juif Margolin 1998). He was a doctor of Law, Bachelor of Arts, International Civil Servant at the United Nations in New York (1946–1956), in Geneva (1958–1961) then at the UNESCO in Paris (from 1962). He travelled all over the world. International Secretary of the PEN club from 1981 to 1997 and then International Vice President of Pen Club since 1998 and President of the French Pen club from 1999 to 2005. In 1990 he created the Russian Pen club. He was a novelist but also a literary critic in relation to his trilingualism (French, Russian, English).

Works 1951: Naissance de l'État coréen 1956: Le Soleil de Cavouri, Éditions Gallimard 1959: Les Enfants de New-York, Gallimard 1961: Obscur ennemi, Gallimard 1964: Les Illusions nocturnes 1968: La Jeune Géante, Gallimard 1971: La Difficulté d’aimer, Gallimard 1972: Ossip Mandelstam, Seghers, series Poètes d'aujourd'hui 1973: Là où tu iras, La Table Ronde 1976: Les Cosmopolites, Gallimard 1979: Sporade (récits de voyage), Arthaud, series "Terre écrite" 1980: Marguerite Yourcenar, Seghers 1981: Gris du ciel, Gallimard 1984: Ivan Gontcharov ou le réalisme impossible, 1984 1984: La Montagne sainte, Albin Michel 1985: Tout l’été, Albin Michel 1988: Sainte Imposture, Albin Michel 1990:Si loin de Dieu et Autres Voyages, Albin Michel 1992: Bloomsbury, Histoire d’une sensibilité artistique et politique anglaise, Balland 1995: Albert Cohen ou Solal dans le siècle, Albin Michel 1995: Nabokov, Seuil, collection Écrivains de toujours 1998: Le Juif Margolin, Plon 2001: Moïse, notre contemporain, Albin Michel 2002: Roses d'Amérique, Balland 2005: Le soleil se couche à l’est, Éditions du Rocher 2008: Une vie à deux, le Rocher 2010: Le Roman, poésie de la prose, Champion 2012: Affaire de Cœur, Pierre-Guillaume de Roux 2015: Tout sera paysage, Gallimard

Literary prizes 1977: Prix Valery-Larbaud for Les Cosmopolites. 1982: Prix Cazes brasserie Lipp for Gris du ciel. 1984: Prix Valentine de Wolmar for La Montagne sainte. 1985: Grand prix de la Critique littéraire for Ivan Gontcharov ou le réalisme impossible. 1986: Prix d'Académie for his lifetime achievement.

Media France Culture devoted five programs to him in 2012.