Le Bonheur des tristes

Luc Dietrich gave an account of his unhappy — or, more precisely, tragic — childhood in a book of remarkable beauty, which was a contender for the Prix Goncourt. The book owes much to Lanza del Vasto, who took the young man under his wing in March 1932. The two men remained inseparable thereafter. For twelve years they sustained an intense literary friendship and a steady correspondence, which culminated in 1942 in Dialogue de l’amitié, a remarkable conversation on style and on the times they were living through.

Devastated by the death of René Daumal on 21 May 1944, Luc Dietrich decided to leave Paris to join a doctor friend, Hubert Benoit, at the front. For two weeks he comforted and cared for the wounded as the Allied landings approached. On 10 June 1944, caught in a bombardment at Saint-Lô, he was wounded in the foot: a slight injury, but one that became infected. Already in fragile health, Dietrich was struck by hemiplegia, then gangrene. He died on 12 August 1944, two weeks before the liberation of Paris.