François-Régis Bastide

FrançoisRégis Bastide 1 July 1926 Biarritz 16 April 1996 Paris was a French writer diplomat politician and radio host Bastide was born in Biarritz in the French Basque Country on 1 July 1926 and attended school in Bayonne In October 1944 he joined the 2nd Armored Division led by General Leclerc and participated in the last phase of the WWII Western Front operations Bastide published his first book the novel Lettre de Bavière in 1947 He continued to publish books regularly and won the Grand Prix de la Critique for his 1953 biographical essay SaintSimon par lui même about Louis de Rouvroy duc de SaintSimon and the Prix Femina for his 1956 novel Les Adieux In 1953 Bastide began a parallel career as a book editor working for the Éditions du Seuil where he worked for close to thirty years Bastide also wrote for the theatre Siegfried 78 and for television most notably Le Troisième concerto which won the grand prix de la Télévision in 1963 and LÉducation sentimentale a miniseries adaptation of Gustave Flauberts novel Sentimental Education In 1981 Bastide received the Pierre de Régnier Prize of the Académie française for his lifetime achievements Bastide began his radio career after World War II as a host on Radio Sarrebruck then under French military control Starting in 1949 he worked for the ORTF as a producer and host He is perhaps best known to the wider French public as one of the original cohosts with Michel Polac of the popular radio talkshow Le Masque et la Plume The show which features debates about cinema literature and theatre debuted in 1955 and is still running today on France Inter Bastide left the show in 1982 Throughout his life Bastide was active in politics in various ways From 1968 to 1976 he was the president of the radio producers and presenters section of the powerful CFDT trade union He was close to the Socialist Party which he represented as a city councilor in Biarritz in 1977 and as a national delegate in 1978 He also coauthored the 1978 Bastide report which led four years later to the creation of the Haute Autorité de la communication audiovisuelle After the election of François Mitterrand in the 1981 presidential election he began a diplomatic career and was successively appointed Ambassador to Denmark 198285 Ambassador to Austria 198588 and Permanent delegate to UNESCO 198890 Source Article FrançoisRégis Bastide from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30