France's Wartime Journal, March 1939–July 1940

Description

FABRE-LUCE, Alfred. Journal de la France. Mars 1939 - Juillet 1940. Brussels: la Toison d'Or, 1942. 352 pp., paperback, octavo. Some penciled underlining. Chronicles invasion, bombing of Paris, Battle of Dunkirk, Italian intervention, disorder, armistice, and events at Hendaye, Bordeaux, and Vichy. Fine copy. Alfred Edmond Fabre-Luce (1899–1983), stationed in London as embassy attaché in 1919, returned to Paris in 1920 to begin a journalism career. Publishing in various newspapers, he became known for polemical, nonconformist opinions. Associated with 1930s non-conformist circles and right-wing movements, he denounced Soviet conditions after visiting the USSR. Editor-in-chief of L'Europe nouvelle (1934–1936), he grew openly critical of Popular Front policies. Initially engaged in neo-socialism, elected municipal councillor in 1935, he later joined Jacques Doriot's Parti Populaire Français. Directed L'Assaut weekly (1936), sharply critical of the Popular Front. Supported Marshal Pétain but opposed mandatory labor service; favoring Allied cooperation and predicting German defeat, he was arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned four months. Re-arrested by Vichy in summer 1944. After Liberation, he resumed writing on political topics: Algerian War, de Gaulle, Giscard d'Estaing, and Mitterrand. He noted that the 1943 Algiers edition of de Gaulle's Vers l'armée de métier contained additions on tank-aircraft coordination absent from the 1934 edition—intended to strengthen its prophetic authority; subsequent editions removed this revision, causing de Gaulle's author serious difficulties.