Jean Lacouture

Jean Lacouture (9 June 1921 – 16 July 2015) was a journalist, historian and author. He was particularly famous for his biographies.
Career.
Jean Lacouture was born in Bordeaux, France. He began his career in journalism in 1950 in "Combat" as diplomatic redactor. He joined "Le Monde" in 1951. In 1953, he worked in Cairo for "France Soir", before returning to "Le Monde" as director for the overseas services, and "grand reporter" (one of the highest titles in French journalism) until 1975.
Politically engaged on the Left, Lacouture supported decolonisation, and Mitterrand from 1981. He worked for the "Nouvel Observateur", and "L'Histoire". He is interviewed in the 1968 documentary film about the Vietnam War entitled "In the Year of the Pig".
Lacouture was also director for publication at "Seuil", one of the main French publishers, from 1961 to 1982, and professor at the IEP of Paris between 1969 and 1972.
He was mainly known to the public because of his biographies, including the lives of Ho Chi Minh, Nasser, Léon Blum, De Gaulle, François Mauriac, Pierre Mendès France, Mitterrand, Montesquieu, Montaigne, Malraux, Germaine Tillion, Champollion, Jacques Rivière, Stendhal and Kennedy.
A dedicated music lover, Lacouture was also president of a society of devotees of Georges Bizet. In 2015 he died in Roussillon, France.