Saint Germain des Prés The Heart of Paris 1945-1955

Saint Germain des Pres is a very important book about a street and a small district in Paris during a particularly vital decade—1945 to 1955. A great period of ideas, Saint-Germain-des-Prés between 1944-1945 was the site of unparalleled artistic explosion in Paris. The end of the war in Paris brought about a veritable creative explosion in the arts, from literature, to music, from philosophy to dance, from theatre to painting and much more. Much like the end of the war in 1870 witnessed the creative explosion in Montmartre, and the end of World War I witnessed the creative explosion in Montparnasse, the decade following the end of World War II coincided with the creative outburst that was centered in Saint Germain des Pres. Gérard Bonal has documented this unique, almost mythical period in French intellectual and creative life. All the legendary names of that period are assembled in Bonal’s book— Juliette Greco, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Bernard Buffet, Jean Cocteau, Simone de Beauvoir, Margueritte Duras and more. The communists, the existentialist, the chansoniers, the jazz musicians, the actors, the film makers, the literary giants, the philosophers and more. The romance, the adventure, the energy, the intensity of life and the times of this district are captured in Bonal’s compelling book. This is a different kind of historiography. It is an intimate biography of a small district in Paris in a decade when people conjoined in creative and intellectual activity which has influenced generations worldwide. Originally published in France, Bonal’s book received wide critical acclaim from Le Figaro, Nouvel Observateur, Le Courier, La Tribune, Focus Histoire, and more.

Gérard Bonal is a very well known and critically acclaimed historian and author. Saint Germain des Press was published by Editions du Seuil in 2008. He is an author of novels and biographies, and has written books on Gérard Philipe, Madeleine Renaud and Jean-Louis Barrault, Simone de Beauvoir and Colette.