Herriot, Édouard

(1872-1957)

   statesman, writer

   one of the most eminent and active French political leaders of his time, and a major figure in the Radical Socialist Party, Edouard Herriot was born in Troyes and educated at the École normale supérieure in Paris. in 1904, at the time of the Dreyfus affair (see dreyfus, Alfred), he entered politics, joining the Radical socialist Party, which he led from 1919 to 1926, from 1931 to 1936, and from 1945 to 1957. In 1905, he was elected mayor of lyon, a post that he held for a total of 50 years (1905-42 and 1945-57). From 1919 on, Herriot was also a member of the Chamber of Deputies and was premier in the Cartel des Gauches government from 1924 to 1925. He tried to form a second government, but was replaced by Raymond poincaré, who named him minister of public instruction (1926). He served again as premier in 1932, then as minister of state (1934-36), before becoming president of the Chamber of Deputies (1936-40). During the 1920s and 1930s, he worked to improve international relations, strongly supporting the League of Nations and calling for official recognition of the soviet union, and ordered the evacuation of the Ruhr. in 1940, he refused to collaborate with the Germans or with the vichy regime. Consequently, he was arrested (1942) and interned in France and Germany until being liberated at the end of the war (1945). Herriot served as one of the deputies who wrote the constitution for the fourth republic in 1946 and, in the same year, was elected to the first National Assembly to meet under the new constitution. in 1947, he was elected speaker of the National Assembly, holding that post until 1953. As early as 1904, Herriot had also achieved a literary reputation. Among his writings are Madame Récamier et ses amis (1904), La Vie de Beethoven (1929), Lyon n'est plus (1939-40), and his memoirs, published under the title Jadis (1948-52). Herriot was elected to the Académie Française in 1946.