Claude Michelet, author of the very popular saga “Des grives aux loups”, died on the night of Wednesday to Thursday at the age of 83 at his home in Brive-La-Gaillarde (Corrèze), announced his youngest son .
“He died in his sleep in Brive where he resided part of his life and where he pursued his career as a writer and that of a peasant, which made him proud,” said Jean-Marc Michelet.
Child of Corrèze, this “writer-peasant” born on May 30, 1938 in Brive, sold millions of books, standard bearer of popular literature far from the great Parisian literary prizes.
Daily helper
After living in Paris until the early 1950s, he moved to Marcillac in the family home in 1960 where he cultivated the land and raised cows.
He had retired for several years from public life to take care of his wife who suffered from a degenerative disease, according to their son. This support as a daily helper had greatly weakened him, as did the death of his eldest son David in 1995, engaged as a volunteer blue helmet in the former Yugoslavia, he underlined.
Claude Michelet’s so-called “terroir” novels, reflections of the rural society of the last century, had a great impact on the French collective consciousness.
“From thrushes to wolves”, success in 1979
In “I chose the earth” (1975), he very simply describes his years of hard work punctuated by successes and failures. Through this first success, he became the voice of thousands of small farmers often disoriented by agrarian reforms.
With “Des grives aux loups”, success since its publication in 1979, followed by three other family novels (“Les palombes n’passera plus”; “L’appel des engoulevents”; “La terre des Vialhe”), he is part of the tradition of popular novels of the 19th century.
Claude Michelet was the father of six children, four of whom are still alive, and the son of Edmond Michelet, appointed Minister of the Armed Forces by General De Gaulle on his return from the Dachau camp. He paid homage to him in “My father Edmond Michelet” (1971).