Editing Boris Vian (section)

===Career===
After Vian's graduation, he and Michelle moved to the [[10th arrondissement of Paris]] and, on 24 August 1942 he became an engineer at the [[AFNOR|French Association for Standardisation (AFNOR)]]. By this time he was an accomplished jazz trumpeter, and in 1943 he wrote his first novel, ''Trouble dans les andains'' (Turmoil in the Swaths). His literary career started in 1943 with his first publication, a poem, in the Hot Club de France bulletin. The poem was signed Bison Ravi ("Delighted Bison"), an anagram of Vian's real name. The same year Vian's father died, murdered at home by burglars.

In 1944, Vian completed ''Vercoquin et le plancton'' (Vercoquin and the Plankton), a novel inspired partly by surprise-parties of his youth and partly by his job at the AFNOR (which is heavily satirized in the novel). [[Raymond Queneau]] and [[Jean Rostand]] helped Vian to publish this work at [[Éditions Gallimard]] in 1947, along with several works Vian completed in 1946. These included his first major novels, ''[[Froth on the Daydream|L'Écume des jours]]'' and ''[[L'Automne à Pékin|L'automne à Pékin]]'' (Autumn in Peking). The former, a tragic love story in which real world objects respond to the characters' emotions, is now regarded as Vian's masterpiece, but at the time of its publication it failed to attract any considerable attention. ''L'automne à Pékin'', which also had a love story at its heart but was somewhat more complex, also failed to sell well.

Frustrated by the commercial failure of his works, Vian vowed he could write a best-seller and wrote the hard-boiled novel ''[[I Spit on Your Graves]]'' (''J'irai cracher sur vos tombes'') in only 15 days. The book was ascribed to a fictitious American writer, Vernon Sullivan, with Vian credited as translator. Vian persuaded his publisher friend Jean d'Halluin to publish the novel in 1947. Eventually the hoax became known and the book became one of the best-selling titles of that year. Vian wrote three more Vernon Sullivan novels from 1947 to 1949.

The year 1946 marked a turning point in Vian's life: At one of the popular parties that he and Michelle hosted he made the acquaintance of [[Jean-Paul Sartre]], [[Simone de Beauvoir]] and [[Albert Camus]], became a regular in their literary circles and started regularly publishing various materials in ''[[Les Temps modernes]]''. Vian admired Sartre in particular and gave him a prominent role—as "Jean-Sol Partre"—in ''L'Écume des jours'' (litt. "The foam of the days") published in English under the title: ''Froth on the Daydream''. Ironically, Sartre and Michelle Vian commenced a relationship that would eventually destroy Vian's marriage.

Despite his literary work becoming more important, Vian never left the jazz scene. He became a regular contributor to jazz-related magazines, and played trumpet at [[Le Tabou]]. As a result, his financial situation improved, and he abandoned the job at the AFNOR. Vian also formed his own choir, ''La petite chorale de Saint-Germain-des-Pieds'' {{sic}}.<ref>[http://www.rfimusique.com/siteFr/biographie/biographie_9012.asp La petite chorale de Saint-Germain-des-Pieds] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110102131822/http://www.rfimusique.com/siteFr/biographie/biographie_9012.asp |date=2 January 2011 }}</ref>