Jacques BOURGEAT
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Writer.
His life as a writer unfolded in Paris, in the first fifty years of the twentieth century, when publishing and literary forms were changing without respite. Like many authors of his generation, he kept the reviews and publishing houses of his time alive without literary history retaining his name.
The story
Born in 1888, Jacques Bourgeat was a historian and a poet: he published a life of Proudhon, “the father of French socialism”, and a history of the pleasures of the table in France from the Gauls to the present day.
Above all he was, for Édith Piaf, the friend in the shadow. From 1935 until the singer's death in 1963 he had her read Plato and Pascal, and received from her a hundred or so letters, published in 2015 under that very title: “Lettres à l'ami de l'ombre”.
He died in 1966 and lies in Division 85, under a bronze plaque bearing his portrait; the inscription runs to two words, “Historien – Poète” — historian, poet. Marcel Proust is a few steps away.
On site, do not miss
The proximity of Marcel Proust's grave, in the same sought-after sector of the cemetery.
Visitors' questions
Where is Jacques Bourgeat's grave?
In Division 85, one of the most sought-after parts of Père-Lachaise, which brings together Marcel Proust and the Queen of Oudh, the cemetery's first Indian grave.
The grave of Reynaldo Hahn, Division 85Which generation of writers did Jacques Bourgeat belong to?
That of the first half of the twentieth century, a period of deep upheaval in French literature, in both its aesthetics and its publishing.
Writers and poetsWhy is Division 85 so sought after?
Because it holds several major figures, Marcel Proust among them, which makes it one of the most visited parts of the cemetery despite its modest size.
The grave of Marcel ProustDo other writers rest in Division 85?
Yes, among them Amédée Achard, a popular novelist of the Second Empire, who lies in the same sector, rich as it is in literary figures.
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