Background
Of French descent, he was born in Algeria, but left as part of the diaspora of French colonists referred to as pied-noirs following the Algerian War.
Of French descent, he was born in Algeria, but left as part of the diaspora of French colonists referred to as pied-noirs following the Algerian War.
Pélégri also assisted on the film adaptation of his novel Les Oliviers de la justice as screenwriter, dialogue writer and actor. "Jean Pélégri, Algerian by birth and one of the great writers of our time, greater than Albert Camus in any case, remains unknown in France. Why? Because he tried so hard to mark his terrority as an Algerian that he created a different kind of French language just for his own use.
And for that, French readers rejected him."
Mohammed Dib, Simorgh, Albin Michel, Paris, 2003.
"Number French writer from Algeria, the "pied-noirs" as we ignorantly call them, with the possible exception of the poet Jean Sénac, accepted Algeria completely for what she is and for what she has always been the way that he did. Number one so naturally felt like a son of Algeria in all her forms: Arab, Berber, Spanish, French.. as Jean Pélégri did, not Gabriel Audisio, not Emmanuel Roblès, not Jules Roy, nor Albert Camus.
From his novel Oliviers de la justice to Maboul, Pélégri sings a veritable "cante jondo" of rural Algeria in all of its baroque complexity. With Kateb Yacine"s Nedjma, Le Maboul is the only Faulknerian novel of our literature."
Jean Daniel, Pélégri l"Algérien, Le Nouvel Observateur, Paris, 2-8 octobre 2003.
L"Embarquement du lundi, Gallimard, Paris, 1952.
Les Oliviers de la justice, Gallimard, Paris, 1959. Grand Prix catholique de littérature 1960
Le Maboul, Gallimard, Paris, 1963. L"Homme-caillou, Abdallah Benanteur, Paris, 1965.
Les Monuments du déluge, Christian Bourgois, Paris, 1967.
Slimane (pièce en quatre actes), Christian Bourgois, Paris, 1968. L"Homme mangé par la ville (dramatique), France-Culture, 1970.
Le Cheval dans la ville, Gallimard, Paris, 1972. Le Maître du Tambour (pièce), Théâtre Jean Vilar, Suresnes, 1974.
Ma mère, l"Algérie, Laphomic, Alger, 1989.
Actes Sud, 1990 (X). Les Etés perdus, Le Seuil, Paris, 1999 (). Jean Pélégri, dans Algérie Littérature/Action n° 29, Editions Marsa, Paris, mars 1999.
Dominique Le Boucher, Jean Pélégri l"Algérien ou Le scribe du caillou, avec des textes inédits de Jean Pélégri, deux volumes, Algérie Littérature/Action n°37-38, Editions Marsa, Paris, 2000 ().
Dominique Le Boucher, Les deux Jean. Jean Sénac, l"homme soleil, Jean Pélégri, l"homme caillou (correspondence 1962-1973, poèmes inédits), Montpellier, Chèvre-feuille étoilée, et Alger, Barzakh, 2002 ().