Maurice Clavel (French:[klavɛl]) (10 November 1920 – 23 April 1979) was a French writer, journalist, andphilosopher.[1]
Maurice Clavel was born on 10 November 1920 inFrontignan,Hérault to a family headed by a father who was a pharmacist. This conservative milieu of small shopkeepers in Languedoc led him to be an activist in the French Popular Party (FPP) in his hometown of Frontignan.
As a brilliant pupil, he got into the prestigiousÉcole Normale Supérieure in theRue d'Ulm inParis. There he became acquainted withTrotskyistJean-Toussaint Desanti andMaurrassianPierre Boutang. The latter, having been appointed in the Secretariat of Public Instruction, invited him to serve by his side under MarshalPhilippe Pétain. Having just gotten his certificate of morale and sociology inMontpellier, Maurice Clavel accepted the offer but was soon disillusioned. While preparing a thesis onImmanuel Kant, he joined theRésistance (1942). As head of theFrench Forces of the Interior ofEure-et-Loir, he took part in the liberation ofChartres where he greeted GeneralCharles de Gaulle on the cathedral's forecourt.
At theLibération, he denounced the blind depuration and tried to save the heads ofRobert Brasillach andDrieu La Rochelle. That did not prevent him from being a fervent activist in theRally of the French People (RPF) whose acerbic criticism of communism got him to be accused by theFrench Communist Party (PCF) of being "Goebbels' voice". He then founded withHenri d'Astier de La Vigerie andAndré Figueras a newspaper calledL'Essor. Meanwhile, he wrote plays directed byJean Vilar likeLes Incendiaires (The Incendiaries) in 1947 orLa Terrasse de midi (The Noon Terrace) in 1949. But those failed, and as he was torn apart after breaking his relationship with the actorSilvia Monfort, Clavel accepted a professor tenure in the Carnot high school inDijon.
Barely liked by his superiors, he soon got back to theatrical works when, in 1951, Jean Vilar appointed him as secretary-general of theThéâtre National Populaire. But his new playMalsameda (1954) as well as his firstnovelUne fille pour l'été (A Girl for the Summer, 1955) turned out to be failures too.
In 1955, Clavel started his career as a journalist writing inCombat. Protesting, among other things, against theinvasion of Hungary by Soviet tanks in 1956, and the use oftorture in Algeria, he got involved with left-wingGaullists in theDemocratic Union of Labour in 1959.Meanwhile, he went back to teaching as a philosophy professor in Camille Sée and Buffon High School in Paris, from 1960 to 1963. WithEmmanuel Berl, he presented a daily radio programmeQui êtes-vous ? (Who are you?). But after the refusal by managers of the radio station to grantJean Daniel a right of reply about Algeria, he resigned. The following year, after publishingLe Temps de Chartres (The Times of Chartres), he ceased his regular contribution toCombat. However, he kept supporting General De Gaulle's position on Algeria, who entrusted him to engage in a dialogue withMessali Hadj.
But the year 1965 marked a fracture in his political and philosophical evolution. First, he regained faith in theCatholic religion, a conversion triggered by his reading of a book byPaul Cochois aboutPierre de Bérulle, the founder of theOratorians congregation. Later, theBen Barka affair in October of the same year led him to distance himself from De Gaulle. In an op-ed published inLe Monde on 15 June 1966, he sanctioned his breaking with the General while announcing to the press his availability to follow the Ben Barka trial as a judicial commentator. Thus he was contacted byHector de Galard to follow the affair forLe Nouvel Observateur, starting in September 1966.
Clavel started his contribution toLe Nouvel Observateur with virulent articles against the power, denouncing among others "the sharks and the gudgeons" (19 October 1966). The following year he contributed to the newspaper's TV column while he continued writing inCombat, and publishing novels such asLa Pourpre de Judée (The Crimson of Judea) orLes Délices du genre humain (The Delights of Mankind, 1967).
May 1968 radicalised his political involvement.[2] Perceiving the events of May as a "uprise of life" from a youth weary ofconsumption society, he found the revolutionary unrest similar to a party and even wished to lead the demonstrators on 13 May to assault theÉlysée Palace. WithinLe Nouvel Observateur, he supported the managers in the name of the need for responsible management, the loneliness of columnists, andindividual responsibility. But outside he went to serve the most radical elements of the contestation leading him to leave his tenure as a philosophy professor at Buffon High School. He won thePrix Médicis forLe Tiers des étioles in 1972.
Clavel died on 23 April 1979 inAsquins,Yonne.
