BéGuin, Albert (1901-57). Swiss-born Protestant, academic, translator, publisher, critic, and director of Esprit after the death of Mounier in 1950. He first gained prominence with his notable study of German Romanticism, L'Âme romantique et le rêve (1937). Yet, although drawn to the mysticism and the dream world of German poetry, he also wrote polemical articles and essays denouncing the Hitler regime of the 1930s while teaching in Germany. Returning to Switzerland, he was converted to Catholicism in 1940, taught at the University of Basle, and helped in 1941 to found and run Les Cahiers du Rhône with contributions from Resistance writers in France and prisoners of war. After the Liberation he settled in Paris, and his last years were spent in great literary activity, resulting in Gérard de Nerval (1945), Balzac visionnaire (1946), and Léon Bloy, mystique de la douleur (1948), among others. While director of Esprit he continued the Personalist tradition of Mounier, trying to reconcile the differences of approach of the sociological and literary contributors, while stressing their individual contribution to the debates of the day.
[Ethel Tolansky]
