Background

Lucien Albert Bodard was born on January 9, 1914, Chongqing, then in Sichuan, the Republic of China, to French parents, Albert Bodard, consul in Chengdu, and his wife, Anne-Marie Registrar Lucien Bodard. He spent ten years of his childhood in China and grew up with the Chinese language before leaving with his mother for France.

Education

Bodard received his education at the School of Rocks in Normandy. His studies then led him to a degree in political science.

Career

In 1944, Bodard began his career as a journalist in the press-information section of the Provisional Government and covers the news of the Far East. He there joined the France-Soir newspaper led by Pierre Lazareff in 1948 and became a war correspondent in Indochina (now Vietnam) until 1955. For the next five years, he served as special envoy for the Far East in Hong Kong, followed by six years as a correspondent in North Africa. From 1960 to 1975, he served as a worldwide correspondent.

Bodard had his entry into the staff of the French Expeditionary Force in the Far East (CFEO), with the Emperor Bao Dai, but also with smaller players such as the civil administrator of Cao Bang or Deo Van Long, a Thai chef from northwestern Tonkin.

At the age of 60, Bodard made a complete transition to writing and a second career as a successful novelist. As he grew older, in the 1970s, he started writing novels which were essentially based on his knowledge of Asia, starting with his souvenirs when he was a child in China. His last book, "Le chien de Mao" (Mao's Dog), on Mao Zedong's third wife Jiang Qing, was published in 1998, the year of his death.

Occasionally actor, Bodard turned for Agnès Varda in the film The creatures that produced his first wife then, Mag Bodard. He also appeared in Daniel Vigne's The Return of Martin Guerre (1982) and in the role of Cardinal Bertrand du Pouget in Jean-Jacques Annaud's The Name of the Rose (1986).

Achievements

• Lucien Bodard was best known as a journalist and writer on events in Asia. Totally, during his career, he wrote some twenty books, including histories and novels. Notable among them was his five-volume La Guerre d’Indochine (“The War of Indochina”); the first two volumes of the work were translated into English and edited by Patrick O’Brian as The Quicksand War: Prelude to Vietnam. The third volume of the work earned him the Prix Aujourd’hui in 1965.
  
  Among his other books are Le Massacre de Indiens (translated as Massacre on the Amazon and also as Green Hell: Massacre of the Brazilian Indians), Monsieur le consul (translated as The French Consul), Anne-Marie, Les Grandes Murailles, Le Chien de Mao (“Mao’s Dog”), and Les Dix mille marches.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The French consul 1977
  • Anne Marie 1982
  • Green hell; Massacre of the Brazilian Indians 1972
  • Monsieur le consul 1974
  • Les grandes murailles 1988
  • Le Fils du Consul 1975
  • La Duchesse 1980
  • The Quicksand War; Prelude to Vietnam 1967
  • Le chien de Mao: Roman 1998
  • L'aventure 1967
  • Les Dix Mille Marches 1993

• movie

  • The Name of the Rose

    (In 1327, William of Baskerviller, an intellectually nonco...)

    1986
  • Movie

    (This movie tells two stories: the birth of a novel and th...)

    1966
  • The Return of Martin Guerre 1982

Politics

On December 12, 1975, a debate between Han Suyin and Lucien Bodard opposed in the show Apostrophes by Bernard Pivot. Han Suyin denounced Lucien Bodard's "schizophrenic" fascination with ancient China, as she praised the economic model of the Great Leap Forward, which she said was created by "real economists" for an underdeveloped country. They also disagree on the personality of Mao Zedong, that of Emperor Puyi on communism and its methods, the dictatorship of the proletariat

Personality

Bodard has been often compared to two other famous 20th-century French journalists and novelists, Albert Londres and Joseph Kessel.

Connections

During his life, Bodard was married three times. His first wife was Mag Bodard. He then married Huguette Cord'homme on May 30, 1962, of whom he had a son, Julien, in 1967. For the third time, he married Marie-Françoise Leclère, editor-in-chief of cultural services at the weekly Le Point.

Father:

Albert Bodard

Césaire Auguste Albert Bodard was a French diplomat.

Mother:

Anne-Marie Registrar Lucien Bodard

ex-wife:

Huguette Cord'homme

Son:

Julien Bodard

Wife:

Marie-Françoise Leclère

ex-wife:

Mag Bodard

References

• Lucien Bodard: Un aventurier dans le siècle
  1997