Henri Bidou

Henry Bidou was a French writer, critic, and war correspondent. He attended a Jesuit college in Rheims and later entered the Institut Catholique de Paris (ICP) until he obtained two doctorates in Siberia. He then added law studies and became a professor of history, geography, and literature at the Ecole Sainte-Geneviève, then at the ICP, and at the Faculté de Lettres.

He had to give up early plans for a military career after a horse-riding accident, which led to the amputation of one of his legs. Nevertheless, he became a war correspondent and military chronicler and eventually a professor at the École de guerre. As a war correspondent, he went to Vichy in 1940 to work with the government of Marshal Pétain. There, he died in 1943.

During his professional career, he worked as a geographer, historian, journalist, lecturer, literary critic, musicographer, painter, and poet. For his thesis, he went to Russia and later travelled to Poland, Uruguay, Japan, Cambodia, Indochina, the Rhineland, Italy, Scandinavia, and the Arctic. During his frequent journeys, he learned several foreign languages including English, German, Spanish, Italian, and Russian.

Bidou contributed to many newspapers including Le Figaro, La Revue des Deux-Mondes, Le Temps, Paris-soir, La Revue hebdomadaire, and many others. he was also known as a music and literary critic. As a talented amateur painter, he exhibited at the Galerie de l’Élysée and the Salon des Tuileries. He published several books on a variety of topics as well as plays and novels.