Vildrac, Charles

▪ French author

pseudonym of  Charles Messager  

born Nov. 22, 1882, Paris, France

died June 25, 1971, Saint-Tropez

      French poet, playwright, and essayist whose idealistic commitment to humanitarianism characterized his artistic and personal life.

      Vildrac, along with the writer Georges Duhamel (later his brother-in-law) and others, founded the Abbaye, a community of young artists and writers who, from 1906 to 1907, lived together in the Paris suburb of Créteil. During World War II he was active in the French Resistance.

      Some of his verse—including Poèmes (1905) and Images et mirages (1907)—celebrates brotherhood and proclaims a belief in the basic goodness of man, while Chants du désespéré (1914–20) (1920; “Songs of a Desperate Man”) expresses anguish at the horrors of war. Vildrac's best-known play, Le Paquebot Tenacity (produced, 1920; S.S. Tenacity), is a character study of two former soldiers about to immigrate to Canada. Michel Auclair (1921) revolves around the loyalty of a man to a woman who has rejected him. La Brouille (1930; “The Misunderstanding”) traces the quarrel of an idealist and a pragmatist. Other plays include Madame Béliard (1925), Les Pères ennemis (1946; “The Enemy Fathers”), and Les Jouets du Père Noël (1952; “The Toys of Father Christmas”).

      Vildrac also wrote travel memoirs and essays, such as Notes sur la technique poétique (1910; “Notes on Poetic Technique”), coauthored with Duhamel. His works for children, including L'Île rose (1924; “The Pink Island”), have been praised as excellent examples of the genre.

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