In 1951, the writer Julien Gracq refused the Goncourt prize for his novel Le Rivage des Syrtes . He thus intends to denounce the commercial compromises of the literary world. "There are writers for whom the advertising windfall does not excuse everything. A writer has the right to choose his path towards the public", he justified himself in the journal Arts .
A first, which caused a scandal. At the time, all the press talked about it. Some hail his courage. But many denounce a publicity stunt and an unjustified attack on a respected price. Among the critics of Julien Gracq, some even intend to go further than words ... "It was such a scandal that a few days after the public refusal, a small group of surrealists undertook the project of kidnapping Julien Gracq at the exit from the school where he taught, to make a happening, kidnap those who did not want Goncourt ", said last November the writer Pierre Assouline, guest of La Voix est livre , on Europe 1.
"Guy Bedos remained sheepish"
"They drew lots for the one who was to kidnap him. It came across the youngest of them, he was 17 years old. He was pretty lanky. Do you know who he was? Guy Bedos, the humorist who is died this Thursday at the age of 85. On D-Day, he rushed to Julien Gracq, who pushed him. Julien Gracq said to him "what do you want?", and he left Guy Bedos remained sheepish, like that ", says Pierre Assouline on Europe 1.
In 2007, an article in Liberation evoked this little known story. The article then spoke of "hoax kidnapping" to "protest against his deemed advertising refusal" and said that Julien Gracq was "saved by journalists". "We don't know what they [the kidnappers] wanted to do with it," said Pierre Assouline, who claims that Guy Bedos confirmed the story to him over the phone.