Raphaël Tardon

Raphaël Louis Thomas Tardon (October 27, 1911 – January 16, 1967) was a French writer, novelist and essayist of Martiniquais origin. He was posthumously awarded the Prix littéraire des Caraïbes in 1966 for his complete body of work. He was the father of screenwriter Bruno Tardon.

Biography Born into a wealthy family in Fort-de-France, Martinique, Tardon attended at the Lycée Schoelcher in Fort-de-France and studied law and history in France. At the outbreak of World War II he served briefly in the French army and later in the resistance in southern France. His sister, Manon Tardon, also fought in the Resistance. After the war, he worked in Paris as a journalist, and subsequently worked for the Ministry of Information, in Madagascar, Dakar and Guadeloupe.

List of works 1946: Bleu des Isles (stories), Fasquelle (Paris) 1947: Starkenfirst (novel), Fasquelle (Paris) 1948: La Caldeira (novel), Fasquelle (Paris) - republished in 2002 by Ibis Rouge Éditions 1948: Le combat de Schoelcher (non-fiction), Fasquelle (Paris) 1950: Christ aux poing (novel), Fasquelle (Paris) 1951: Toussaint Louverture, le Napoléon noir (non-fiction), Éditions Bellemand 1961: Noirs et blancs. Une solution: l'Apartheid?, Éditions Denoël (Paris)