This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1948.
Maurice Druon was a French novelist and a member of the Académie française, of which he served as "Perpetual Secretary" (chairman) between 1985 and 1999.
Fantastique is a French term for a literary and cinematic genre that overlaps with science fiction, horror, and fantasy.
Serge Brussolo is a French fiction author.
Boileau-Narcejac is the nom de plume used by the prolific French crime-writing duo of Pierre Boileau and Pierre Ayraud, aka Thomas Narcejac. Their successful collaboration produced 43 novels, 100 short stories and 4 plays. They are credited with having helped to form an authentically French subgenre of crime fiction with the emphasis on local settings and mounting psychological suspense. They are noted for the ingenuity of their plots and the skillful evocation of the mood of disorientation and fear. Their works were adapted into numerous films, most notably, Les Diaboliques (1955), directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, and Vertigo (1958), directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
Ross Franklin Lockridge Jr., was an American writer known for writing Raintree County (1948). The novel, which quickly became a bestseller, was widely praised by readers and critics alike. Some have considered it a "Great American Novel." As the novel climbed high on the bestseller lists, Lockridge, at the peak of his fame, died by suicide at age 33.
Claire Martin, was the pseudonym of the Canadian writer Claire Montreuil. She wrote mainly in French. Her novels often have themes of women's liberation and erotic relationships. Martin frequently revealed her devotions toward the "Frenchness" and Quebec nationalism as saying "I prefer to be of Quebec." or "I feel closer to love as a French-Canadian." In her works, Quebec and French-Canadian are portrayed as well-educated and living well. Martin focused her writing style on risks and illnesses of love, and wrote with prejudice and social conventions. Her works are characterized by purity and crafty use of language.
Georges Ohnet was a French novelist.
Jean-Patrick Manchette was a French crime novelist credited with reinventing and reinvigorating the genre. He wrote ten short novels in the seventies and early eighties, and is widely recognized as the foremost French crime fiction author of that period. His stories are violent explorations of the human condition and French society. Manchette was politically to the left and his writing reflects this through his analysis of social positions and culture.
Benoît Duteurtre is a French novelist and essayist. He is also a musical critic, musician, producer and host of a radio show about music. He spends his time between Paris, New York and Normandy.
The Grand Prix de Littérature Policière is a French literary prize founded in 1948 by author and literary critic Maurice-Bernard Endrèbe. It is the most prestigious award for crime and detective fiction in France. Two prizes are awarded annually to the best French novel and to the best international crime novel published in that year.
The grand prix de l'Imaginaire, until 1992 the grand prix de la science-fiction française, is a French literary award for speculative fiction, established in 1972 by the writer Jean-Pierre Fontana as part of the science fiction convention of Clermont-Ferrand.
Thomas Heggen was an American author best known for his 1946 novel Mister Roberts and its adaptations to stage and screen. Heggen became an Oklahoman in 1935, when in the depths of the Depression his father's business failed and his family moved from Iowa to Oklahoma City for work. He was Wallace Stegner's cousin.
Raintree County is a 1957 American epic historical romance film adapted from the 1948 novel by Ross Lockridge Jr. The film was directed by Edward Dmytryk and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Set in the American South against the backdrop of the Antebellum South and the American Civil War, the film tells the story of a small-town Midwestern teacher and poet named John Shawnessy, who meets and marries a beautiful Southern belle named Susanna Drake; however, her emotional instability leads to the destruction of their marriage. The leading roles are played by Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Eva Marie Saint, and Lee Marvin.
French science fiction is a substantial genre of French literature. It remains an active and productive genre which has evolved in conjunction with anglophone science fiction and other French and international literature.
Serge Élie Ayoub, also known under the alias Batskin, is a French political activist associated with the far-right and formerly the hooligan movement.
Wonder Story Annual was a science fiction pulp magazine which was launched in 1950 by Standard Magazines. It was created as a vehicle to reprint stories from early issues of Wonder Stories, Startling Stories, and Wonder Stories Quarterly, which were owned by the same publisher. It lasted for four issues, succumbing in 1953 to competition from the growing market for paperback science fiction. Reprinted stories included Twice in Time, by Manly Wade Wellman, and "The Brain-Stealers of Mars", by John W. Campbell.
Françoise Dunand is a French historian, professor emeritus of the University of Strasbourg. She is a specialist in Greek and Roman Egypt.
Lucien Sève was a French philosopher, communist and political activist. He was an active member of the French Communist Party from 1950 to 2010. His 1969 work Marxisme et théorie de la personnalité has been translated into 25 different languages. Sève died on 23 March 2020 of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
Jacques van Herp was a Belgian publisher, anthologist and writer of science fiction who was director of collections at Marabout.
