Celebrity Deathwatch: Jacques Laurent, French Writer, 81

["Deathwatch Central" <cdw@slick.org>]

http://www.cnn.com/2000/books/news/12/29/france.obit.laurent.ap/index.html

French writer Jacques Laurent dies
December 29, 2000
Web posted at: 4:47 PM EST (2147 GMT)


PARIS, France (AP) -- Acclaimed French writer Jacques Laurent, best known
for writing the book behind the film that launched blonde screen siren
Martine Carol's career, died Friday at his home in Paris, aged 81.

A prolific writer of novels and essays, Laurent was elected in 1986 to the
prestigious Academie Francaise, a gathering of the country's top minds who
are known as "the immortals."

Laurent's death was announced by the Institut de France, which groups the
Academie Francaise and other renowned cultural institutions.

He won France's top literary prize, the Prix Goncourt, in 1971 for his novel
"The Follies." He was also awarded the great prize for literature by the
Academie Francaise in 1981 for his life's work.

But despite his highbrow success, Laurent was best known for "Dear
Caroline," a romantic drama about a young woman living by her wits and
physical charms during the French Revolution.

He wrote the book under the pseudonym Cecil Saint-Laurent and the story was
brought to the screen in 1950, in a film of the same name that launched
voluptuous Carol's career.

Laurent was born on January 5, 1919 in Paris to a bourgeois family. His
father was a lawyer but the son opted to study philosophy at the Sorbonne
University. World War II brought an end to his studies.

His first novel, "The Tranquil Bodies," was published in 1948 and his first
essay, "Paul and Jean-Paul" -- a study of the existentialist writer
Jean-Paul Sartre -- in 1951.

He also worked as a journalist and founded a literary review "La Parisienne"
in 1953. A provocative character, he was well known for his right-wing
views.

Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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