Paris (AFP)
A total of 175 novels forever linked Frédéric Dard's name to that of his character, the policeman San-Antonio.
And it is not even half of the superabundant work of this writer who would have been 100 years old on Tuesday.
He was born on June 29, 1921 in a modest family of Bourgoin-Jallieu (Isère).
And he ended up, in the 1970s, by giving up his own name on the cover, to sign "San-Antonio", including for a moving book where he evokes the kidnapping of his daughter, "Should we kill the little ones boys with their hands on their hips? "
(1984).
This arch-famous pseudonym guaranteed success in bookstores at one time.
Even if it means flooding the market: Dard died in 2000 with more than 400 novels in the catalog.
Asked in 1978 when he was approaching 100 million copies sold, he replied to Swiss public radio: "It's fabulous, and I thank heaven for that!"
"I had a very difficult start, I was starved (...) I have a kind of worry: I tell myself that it is not possible for such a thing to happen to a man, and then that it always continues! It will inevitably cease, "he confessed.
- "The least bar-tobacco" -
Sales now exceed 250 million copies sold, according to an unverifiable count.
This impossible success today is the result of a bulimia of writing, but also of a requirement of its publisher, who assured him comfortable copyrights ... on the express condition that he keeps pace with several deliveries per year.
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"For Frédéric Dard it was a drug. The testimonies of his relatives agree: you left him two or three days without writing and he became unlivable", told AFP Maxime Gillio, vice-president of the Association of Friends of San-Antonio.
"The marketing strategy of its publisher, Armand de Caro, is also a completely unimaginable phenomenon these days. The smallest bar-tobacco in the depths of Cantal must have had a display with San Antonio. And there was no possible returns for unsold items! ”he adds.
No bestselling author, no matter how productive, would agree to these kinds of conditions.
Amélie Nothomb thus revealed at the beginning of June to ActuaLitté that she was "writing [her] 102nd manuscript", but only gave one a year to Albin Michel.
As for the big publishing houses, they would hate to be accused of sacrificing quality for quantity.
"There are small, struggling publishers who publish by the mile, hoping that a title will stand out. That's not the solution. It's like drowning and hanging on to anybody. what, because we panic, affirmed to AFP the president of the National Syndicate of the publishers, Vincent Montagne, on the occasion of the annual review of the sector.
- Originals at a gold price -
If Frédéric Dard is still published, it is much more reasoned.
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Its historical publisher, Fleuve, released on June 24 "Des Nouvelles de moi", a collection of 222 short fictions written between 1940 and 1985. Bringing them together was painstaking work.
The author himself had forgotten some of the pseudonyms or intrigues dating from the times when he was pulling the devil by the tail.
Far from being devalued, "most of these tales and short stories are known only to collectors, and their original publications are sold at a high price", underlines in the preface Alexandre Clément, who coordinated this volume of nearly 600 pages.
As for the complete series of San-Antonio, this cocktail of action, humor and slang, it is assembled in electronic form, in editions 12-21, by decade.
The 80s are the most prolific (41 novels), but fans will often tell you that the best thrillers are in the 50s (37 novels) or 60 (35 novels).
Frédéric Dard's "100 freelance" are celebrated in Les Mureaux, the city of Yvelines where he settled in 1949 to succeed as a journalist in Paris, and where he created the character of San-Antonio, through a tourist route and film screenings.
© 2021 AFP