Joseph Kessel

Vocation

French journalist and novelist. Kessel was born in Villa Clara, Entre Ríos, Argentina, because of the constant journeys of his father, a Lithuanian doctor of Jewish origin. Joseph Kessel lived the first years of his childhood in Orenburg, Russia, before the family moved to France in 1908. He studied in Nice and Paris, and took part in the First World War as an aviator. He was also an aviator during the Second World War, assigned to the Free French Bomb. Squadron "Lorraine" known as No.342 Squadron in the Royal Air Force with Romain Gary who was also a talented French novelist. Kessel wrote several novels and books that were later represented in the cinema, notably Belle de Jour (by Luis Buñuel in 1967). He was also a member of the Académie française from 1962 to 1979. In 1943 he and his nephew Maurice Druon translated Anna Marly's song Chant des Partisans into French from its original Russian. The song became one of the anthems of the Free French Forces during the Second World War. Joseph Kessel died in Avernes, Val-d'Oise on 23 July 1979. He is buried in the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris. Link to Wikipedia biography