Guéhenno, Jean

(1890-1978)

   essayist

   Born in Paris, Jean Guéhenno, the son of a seamstress and a shoemaker, understood early in life the concept of "class struggle," which he later expressed in his Journal d'un homme de quarante ans (1934). After having denounced cultural inequalities in Caliban parle (1928), in Journal d'une révolution (1936-38), he gave a testimony to the popular front. It is also as a testimony, but in the form of an indictment, that Le Journal des années noires, 19401941 was written in 1946. Guéhenno did studies, too, on jules michelet (L'Évangile éternel, 1927) and jean-jacques rousseau (Jean-Jacques, 1949-52). He was elected to the Académie Française in 1962.