Jacques Bouly de Lesdain

Jacques Bouly de Lesdain
Born October 4, 1880
Dunkirk, France
Died 1975
Alma mater Sciences Po
Occupation Lawyer, diplomat
Spouse(s) Martha Mailey

Count Jacques Bouly de Lesdain (1880-1975) was a French aristocrat, lawyer and diplomat. He was the author of several travel books about Asia and political books about Germany. He was the political editor of L'Illustration and he organised anti-Freemasonry conferences during World War II.

Early life

Jacques Bouly de Lesdain was born on October 4, 1880.[1] He was a count.[2] He graduated from Sciences Po and received a bachelor's degree in Laws.[1]

Career

Bouly de Lesdain was a lawyer and diplomat.[1] He was the author of books about Mongolia and Tibet, based on his travelling experiences.[2] For example, he had led an expedition in the Gobi Desert in 1902.[3] He also published several books about Germany, including La Seconde paix, a 1931 treatise in which he called for closer Franco-German relations under the pseudonym of "Esdalin".[4] By the 1930s, he joined the Dunkirk chapter of the Action Française.[5]

Bouly de Lesdain joined L'Illustration as a contributor based in Basel, Switzerland, in 1939.[1] During World War II, he supported Germany and met Otto Abetz several times.[6] He complained that his antisemitic articles were turned down for publication by L'Illustration.[6] However, he subsequently became its political editor.[7]

Bouly de Lesdain co-organised an anti-Freemasonry conference with Jean Rivière in October 1940 at the Petit Palais.[8] It was attended by more than a million visitors,[7] and later shown in Rouen, Bordeaux, Lille and Nancy until the summer of 1942, when it was shown in Berlin, Germany.[8] Meanwhile, Bouly de Lesdain organised another conference, Exposition de la France européenne, held at the Grand Palais from May 31 to October 31, 1941.[9] By then, he openly criticised Marshal Philippe Pétain for failing to take a hard line on racial policy,[10] and he was engaged in "active collaborationism".[6] In August 1944, he fled to the Sigmaringen Castle with members of the Vichy government, and he was the director of their radio communications.[1]

Personal life and death

Bouly de Lesdain married Martha Mailey, an American explorer he met in the Gobi Desert in 1902; they divorced in 1926.[3] He died in 1975.[1]

Works

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Jacques de Lesdain (1880-1975)". Bibliothèque nationale de France. Retrieved October 4, 2016.
  2. 1 2 Charleux, Isabelle (2002). "Padmasambhava's Travel to the North The Pilgrimage to the Monastery of the Caves and the Old Schools of Tibetan Buddhism in Mongolia". Central Asiatic Journal. 46 (2): 168–232. JSTOR 41928298. (registration required (help)).
  3. 1 2 "Romance Gone, Given Divorce". The Evening News. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. July 28, 1926. p. 1. Retrieved October 4, 2016 via Newspapers.com. (registration required (help)).
  4. "La Seconde paix". WorldCat. Retrieved October 4, 2016.
  5. Vavasseur-Desperriers, Jean (2008). "L'Action française dans le Nord". In Leymarie, Michel; Prévotat, Jacques. L' Action française: culture, société, politique. Villeneuve d'Ascq: Presses universitaires du Septentrion. p. 307. ISBN 9782757400432. OCLC 227152806.
  6. 1 2 3 Geneste, Elsa (2013). "René Maran et la Résistance : enquête sur une prétendue collaboration". Présence Africaine. 1 (187-188): 139–152. doi:10.3917/presa.187.0139. Retrieved October 4, 2016 via Cairn.info. (registration required (help)).
  7. 1 2 Lambauer, Barbara (2004). "Otto Abetz, inspirateur et catalyseur de la collaboration culturelle". In Betz, Albrecht; Martens, Stefan. Les intellectuels et l’Occupation, 1940-1944. Paris: Autrement. pp. 64–89. ISBN 9782746705401. Retrieved October 4, 2016 via Cairn.info. (registration required (help)).
  8. 1 2 Rossignol, Dominique (1991). "Pourquoi a-t-on condamné la franc-maçonnerie ?". Histoire de la propagande en France de 1940 à 1944 : l'utopie Pétain. Paris: Presses universitaires de France. pp. 239–264. ISBN 9782130434740. OCLC 24702494. Retrieved October 4, 2016 via Cairn.info. (registration required (help)).
  9. Dorléac, Laurence Bertrand (2008). Art of the Defeat: France 1940-1944. Los Angeles, California: Getty Research Institute. p. 171. ISBN 9780892368914. OCLC 214322708.
  10. Lackerstein, Debbie (2012). National Regeneration in Vichy France: Ideas and Policies, 1930–1944. Farnham, U.K.: Ashgate. p. 210. ISBN 9780754667216. OCLC 743432341.


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