François Cavanna

François Cavanna (born 2 February 1923 in Nogent-sur-Marne) is a French author and satirical newspaper editor. He contributed to the creation and success of Hara-Kiri (magazine) and Charlie Hebdo. He has written in a variety of genres including reportage, satire, essays, novels, autobiography and humor.

Although raised in France, he grew up surrounded by Italian immigrants due to his father's being from Italy. He treated this life in his book Les Ritals (1978). At the age of 16, he took up various part-time jobs. He delivered letters for the postal service, sold fruits and vegetables, and was a mason's apprentice. His journalistic debut came in 1945 when he began to work for the daily Libération.

In November 1969, Hara-Kiri was banned by the authorities for being pornographic. Cavanna came up with the expedient of renaming the magazine for the next weeks' issue, and thus, Charlie Hebdo was born. [1]

Later, he turned to autobiographical writing. Les Ritals, mentioned above, dealt with his childhood, while Russkofs treated his experience in World War II and was the novel for which he won the Prix Internallié in 1979. [2]

Publications (in chronological order)

• 4, rue Choron (1965)
• Je l’ai pas lu, je l’ai pas vu, mais j’en ai entendu causer: chroniques de Hara-Kiri hebdo, 1969 II (1970)
• Je l’ai pas lu, je l’ai pas vu, mais j’en ai entendu causer: chroniques de Hara-kiri hebdo, 1969 I (1975)
• Le con Se Surpasse (1975)
• Où s’arrêtera-t-il? (1977)
• Les russkoffs (1979)
• Les ritals (1978)
• Les yeux plus grands que le ventre (1983)
• --et le singe devint con: l’aurore de l’humanité (1984)
• L’œil du lapin (1987)
• Les fosses carolines (1986)
• Les aventures de Napoléon (1988)
• La couronne d’Irène (1988)
• Maman, au secours! (1990)
• Nos ancêtres les Gaulois, ou, l’histoire de France redécouverte par Cavanna (1991)
• Les grands imposteurs (1991)
• Coups de sang (1991)
• La belle fille sur le tas d’ordures (1991)
• Dieu, Mozart, Le Pen et les autres-- : les nouveaux imposteurs (1992)
• De Coluche à Mitterrand: l’intégrale de Cavanna dans Charlie Hebdo, année 1981 (1993)
• Les enfants de Germinal (1993)
• Les pensées (1994)
• Lettre ouverte aux culs-bénits (1994)
• Le Hun blond: roman (1998). Historical romance about events in Gaul and Frankish Europe in the decades after Attila the Hun
• La hache et la croix : roman (1999)
• La Déesse Mère: roman (1997)
• Le dieu de Clotilde: roman (2000)
• Le sang de Clovis: roman (2001)
• Les reines rouges: roman (2002)
• Les écritures: les aventures de Dieu et du petit Jésus (2002)
• Le voyage (2006). A historical novel about the voyages of Christopher Columbus told from the point of view of an Irish shipmate.

References

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