Le Cimetière parisien d'Ivry, Val-de-Marne (94): #7: Roger Stéphane

Roger Stéphane (né Roger Worms) (1919–94) was a writer and journalist, a member of the Resistance, and a co-founder of L'Observateur. He was an admirer of the work of Stendhal, Proust and T. E. Lawrence and a friend of Georges Simenon. He was one of the first campaigners for gay rights. He wrote several biographies on, for instance, Simenon, Lawrence and Cocteau, and, ill and in poverty, killed himself.

Le Cimetière parisien d'Ivry, Val-de-Marne (94): #6: Missak Manouchiank

Missak Manouchian (1906–44) was an Armenian poet and journalist who moved to France in 1925. As a member of the French Resistance, he was shot in 1944.

Le Cimetière parisien d'Ivry, Val-de-Marne (94): #5:Jules Boucher

Jules Boucher (1903 – 1955) was a writer, occultist, alchemist and free-mason. His works include La Symbolique maçonnique (1948) and Manuel de magie pratique (1941).

Le Cimetière parisien d'Ivry, Val-de-Marne (94): #4: Abdel Hafed Benotman

'Abdel Hafed BENOTMAN

1960 – [2015]

'Ça valait pas la peine

mais ça valait le coup !

Enfin libérable...'

Abdel Hafed Benotman was of Algerian descent and wrote detective novels, short stories, poems, songs, plays and film scenarios. He was guilty of many thefts and bank robberies and spent several occasions behind bars. He was born in France and spent his childhood in the Latin Quarter. Later, he set up theatre workshops for various groups of people: psychotic children, elderly people, delinquants, and the handicapped. Back in prison in 1990, his collection of short stories, Les Forcenés, was published in 1993. 

Le Cimetière parisien d'Ivry, Val-de-Marne (94): #3: Arthur Adamov

First recognized along with the likes of Samuel Beckett and Eugene Ionesco as a defining figure at the forefront of the theatre of the absurd, French playwright Adam Adamov had a fairly prolific career, writing twenty plays between 1947 and his death in 1970. Now though he has fallen into obscurity. John J. McMann provides a study of Adamov's work which traces the playwright's artistic development and explores his role in defining the avant-garde and political theaters of France.

Adam Adamov doesn't get much of a grave here, which is absurd, but then like Alfred Jarry's grave is pretty much to be expected. Adamov wrote about twenty plays, but is now almost forgotten: in 1962 Martin Esslin's Theatre of the Absurd lists ten authors in huge letters on the cover of the Pelican version, and Adamov is one of them. But Esslin accepting the OBE from her royal etc, now that really is absurd...

Le Cimetière parisien d'Ivry, Val-de-Marne (94): #2: Artur London

'Artur LONDON

GERARD

1915 . 1986 

-------

Lise RICOL

LONDON

1916 . 2012

-------'

The memorial on the grave to the brave work of Lise for the workers and the oppressed, with a translation in Catalan.

As a couple, man and wife published L'Aveu (lit. 'The Confession') in 1968, which was an autobiographical account of London's experience of the Prague trials. Costa-Gavras turned the book into a film starring Yves Montand and Simone Signoret.

Le Cimetière parisien d'Ivry, Val-de-Marne (94): #1: Georges Jamati

Finding the grave of Georges Jamati (1894–1954) caused me to stumble, break my glasses (which needed renewing anyway), and gave me several large scratches and bruises. No idea why, as it certainly hadn't been raining, I've been in many cemeteries which are very frightening to negotiate but this one isn't, so it's just the way things go. Oh yes, Jemati. The cemetery guide describes him as a playwright and a writer of non-fiction, although the only play I can definitely pin him down to is Le Complot (lit. 'The Plot') of 1934. I'm obviously open to correction, but he seems more preoccupied with theatre theory, such as his Théâtre et vie intérieure or Théâtre et collectivité (1954).