INTERVIEW
In 1951, the writer Julien Gracq refused the Prix Goncourt, for his novel The Shore of the Syrtes . He thus intends to denounce the commercial compromises of the literary world. "There are writers for whom the advertising manna does not excuse everything.A writer has the right to choose his way to the public," he justified then in the journal Arts .
A first, which is scandalous. At the time, all the press speaks about it. Some salute his courage. But many denounce a publicity stunt and an unjustified attack against a respected price. Among the critics of Julien Gracq, some even intend to go further than the words ...
"It was such a scandal that a few days after the public refusal, a small group of surrealists undertook the project to kidnap Julien Gracq at the end of high school where he taught, to make a happening, kidnap the one who did not want the Goncourt ", tells today the writer Pierre Assouline, guest of the Voice is book , on Europe 1.
"Guy Bedos stayed sheepishly"
"They drew lots who was supposed to kidnap him, and he fell on the youngest of them, he was 17. He was pretty bad, you know who it was, Guy Bedos. ran to Julien Gracq, who pushed him in. Julien Gracq told him 'what do you want?', and he left Guy Bedos was sheepish, like that, "says Pierre Assouline on Europe 1.
In 2007, an article of Libération evoked this little-known story. The article then spoke of "hoax kidnapping" to "protest against his refusal deemed advertising" and says that Julien Gracq was "saved by journalists". "We do not know what they [the kidnappers] wanted to do," says Pierre Assouline, who says that Guy Bedos confirmed the story on the phone.