Maurice Nadeau
Illustration — Nadeau in 1968 Maurice Nadeau (21 May 1911 – 16 June 2013) was a French teacher, writer, literary critic, and editor. He was born and died in Paris. He was the father of the actress Claire Nadeau and the film director Gilles Nadeau.
Also recorded as Joë Christmas
Maurice Nadeau

Βερναρδ · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Born
- 1911. · 8th arrondissement of Paris.
- Died
- 2013. · 5th arrondissement of Paris.
- Nationality
- France.
- Occupation
- editor, literary critic, writer, collection manager, journalist, french resistance fighter and teacher.
- Education
- École normale supérieure de Saint-Cloud.
- Honours
- Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, Mac Orlan Prize and Grand prix national des Lettres.
- Languages
- French.
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Documentary summary
Illustration — Nadeau in 1968 Maurice Nadeau (21 May 1911 – 16 June 2013) was a French teacher, writer, literary critic, and editor. He was born and died in Paris. He was the father of the actress Claire Nadeau and the film director Gilles Nadeau.
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- Identity
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Authority files
gnd · 1140864491 · wikidata · Q974324 · wikipedia · Maurice Nadeau
In this article
Biography
Biography
Maurice Nadeau studied at École normale supérieure de Saint-Cloud. The recorded working language is French. Employment is recorded with Combat, Éditions du Pavois and Buchet/Chastel. Distinctions recorded are Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, Mac Orlan Prize and Grand prix national des Lettres.
Orphaned during the First World War, Nadeau attended the École normale supérieure de Saint-Cloud, where he discovered politics. In 1930, he joined the French Communist Party, where he worked with Georges Cogniot. He was expelled from the party in 1932. He then read Lenin and Leon Trotsky, which inspired him to join the Ligue Communiste, a Trotskyist party created by Pierre Naville. In this period, he frequently met Louis Aragon, André Gide, André Breton, Jacques Prévert and Benjamin Péret. Made a teacher of literature in 1936, he taught until 1945, briefly as a teacher of literature in Prades, but he preferred to be a schoolteacher in Thiais in order to move closer to Paris. He then collaborated with André Breton on the review Clé, which protested against the internment in France of Spanish republicans in the early phases of the Spanish Civil War. After a brief period of mobilization, he returned to teaching during the Nazi occupation and engaged in clandestine political activities. His resistance network (which included a German soldier who would be executed) was dismantled in the course of a raid. David Rousset and several of his other members were deported. Rousset's wife helped Nadeau to escape deportation. This first part of his life led to the publication in 1945 of his Histoire du surréalisme (History of Surrealism) published in the United States in 1965 and the United Kingdom in 1968). The book was the major reference work on surrealism for long despite the fact that André Breton disliked it. At the Liberation, Nadeau became a critic for the resistance newspaper Combat, edited by Albert Camus, with the help of its editor-in-chief Pascal Pia. He ran the literary page for seven years and brought to prominence authors such as Georges Bataille, Jean Genet, René Char, Henri Michaux, Claude Simon and Henry Miller. He also began editing the works of the Marquis de Sade. He stunned his contemporaries by coming to the defense of Louis-Ferdinand Céline. In 1982, he wrote a fine introduction (replacing that of John Fowles) to the French edition of The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, published by Maurice Nadeau/Papyrus under the title Sarnia, the Latin name for Guernsey, the setting of the novel.
Identity
Identity
Maurice Nadeau is recorded as having received Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, Mac Orlan Prize and Grand prix national des Lettres.

Lettre témoignant de l'intérêt de Maurice Nadeau pour le roman Forclos (titré provisoirement "Si-moussa" avant parution) de Françoise Leclerc
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Signature de la lettre témoignant de l'intérêt de Maurice Nadeau pour le roman Forclos (titré provisoirement "Si-moussa" avant parution) de Françoise Leclerc
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Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1911
Maurice Nadeau was born in 1911 at 8th arrondissement of Paris.
2013
Maurice Nadeau died in 2013 at 5th arrondissement of Paris.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
8th arrondissement of Paris.
Birth place
5th arrondissement of Paris.
Death place
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Maurice Nadeau”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q974324: Maurice Nadeau
Reputable secondary · Wikidata
authority file
- Gemeinsame Normdatei 1140864491, Éditions Maurice Nadeau.
Unverified · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Literature
Literature
La critique littéraire de Maurice Nadeau dans France-Observateur en 1954, Contextes, 2024
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Relevé des fichiers de l'Insee
- 2.Pierre Haski. Maurice Nadeau s’éteint à cent ans passés et un dernier combat. rue89, nouvelobs.com. 17 juin 2013.
- 3.Maurice Nadeau, éditeur génial et désargenté, mort à la tâche à 102 ans, article sur le site du quotidien Le Monde, daté du 17 juin 2013.
- 4.Sous le pseudonyme de Joë Christmas, Maurice Nadeau a publié en 1941 Barbara Rogers aux éditions Georges Ventillard (source BnF). Photographie de la couverture.
- 5.Who's Who in France, dictionnaire biographique, 1992-1993. Éditions Jacques Lafitte 1992
- 6.Grâces leur soient rendues, Albin Michel, 1990, .
- 7.La mort de René Lefeuvre, La Quinzaine Littéraire, 16.07.1988.
- 8.André Breton, Flagrant délit, Thésée, 1949, p. 23
- 9.Marion Van Renterghem. Maurice Nadeau, éditeur génial et désargenté, mort à la tâche à 102 ans. Le Monde. 17 juin 2013. 29 août 2020.
- 10.Elise ou la Vraie Vie. Routledge. 2005-08-12. 978-1-134-96484-0.
- 11.Le site de La Quinzaine littéraire.
- 12.Née en 1930, Anne Sarraute est la fille de l'écrivain Nathalie Sarraute, la monteuse d'Alain Resnais, (Toute la mémoire du monde, Le Mystère de l'atelier quinze, Hiroshima mon amour, et son assistante sur Nuit et brouillard) et la monteuse de Chris Marker (Lettre de Sibérie). Elle entre à La Quinzaine littéraire dès 1966 et en devient la cheville ouvrière, jusqu'à son décès en 2008.
- 13.Écouter un jeune homme de quatre-vingt-dix-sept ans, réalisé au printemps 2008 : un entretien avec Maurice Nadeau.
- 14.Vous ne laisserez pas mourir la Quinzaine.
- 15.Entretien filmé de Maurice Nadeau par Michel Boujut.
- 16.Le Chemin de la vie, entretiens avec Laure Adler, Verdier, 2011.
- 17.Une journée d'Ivan Denissovitch : traduction française en 1963 chez Julliard où travaillait Nadeau à l'époque.
- 18.Le film sur le site de la vidéothèque du CNRS.
- 19.laquinzaine.wordpress.com, octobre 2009
- 20.Maurice Nadeau : "Tout ce que j'ai publié c'est un peu par hasard". franceculture.fr. 22-07-2017.
References
Citations
References
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authority file
Gemeinsame Normdatei 1140864491, Éditions Maurice Nadeau.Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 15 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
38,661 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Maurice LeblancAuthor
- Maurice MaeterlinckAuthor
- Maurice MagreAuthor
- Maurice MierauAuthor
- Maurice OurryAuthor
- Maurice PaléologueAuthor
- Maurice PottecherAuthor
- Maurice RajsfusAuthor
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