Les Jeux sauvages

Born in 1920, Paul Colin was crowned at the age of thirty for this first novel, Les Jeux sauvages. It came as a surprise, since two favorites had emerged ahead of the field: André Dhôtel, and Marguerite Duras with her Un Barrage contre le Pacifique. “The vote was so close that on the fifth round it went to someone whom absolutely no one had thought of as a possible Goncourt winner. Not even Philippe Hériat, who threw out the name just to see, hoping it might break the deadlock: Paul Colin, author of Jeux sauvages. Who?” (Pierre Assouline, Du côté de chez Drouant).

The reaction was immediate, but remained controversial. A rumor soon spread in Paris that the 1950 Goncourt had been a commercial failure. To put an end to it, Gaston Gallimard had the print runs at Brodard et Taupin, Grévin and the Imprimerie Moderne certified by bailiffs and, in February 1951, published two striking pages in the Bibliographie de la France: on one side the bailiffs’ official reports, on the other, in bold type, the statement “122,500 copies, print run certified by bailiff.” Not to mention the immediate issue in publisher’s boards, with a design by Prassinos. The rumor died down at once, though the confusion between “printed” and “sold” was never entirely dispelled.

The prize nonetheless secured Paul Colin’s place in literary history, even though his later career never fulfilled the promise of this first novel. And for a long time it remained a source of regret for Marguerite Duras.

From the “Prix Goncourt” library of Gérard Pouguet, with bookplate.