Jean Lacouture, a renowned journalist, historian, and author, was born on June 9, 1921, in Bordeaux, France. He began his journalism career in 1950 as a diplomatic reporter for Combat, and later joined Le Monde in 1951. In 1953, he worked in Cairo for France Soir before returning to Le Monde as director of overseas services and grand reporter, one of the highest titles in French journalism, until 1975.
As a political journalist, Lacouture was engaged on the Left and supported decolonization and Mitterrand from 1981. He worked for the Nouvel Observateur and L'Histoire, and was interviewed in the 1968 documentary film In the Year of the Pig about the Vietnam War.
Lacouture also held various positions, including director of publication at Seuil, one of France's main publishers, from 1961 to 1982, and professor at the IEP of Paris between 1969 and 1972.
He was particularly famous for his biographies, which included the lives of Ho Chi Minh, Nasser, Léon Blum, De Gaulle, François Mauriac, Pierre Mendès France, Mitterrand, Montesquieu, Montaigne, Malraux, Germaine Tillion, Champollion, Jacques Rivière, Stendhal, and Kennedy.
A dedicated music lover, Lacouture was also president of a society of devotees of Georges Bizet. He passed away on July 16, 2015, in Roussillon, France.
