Editing Louis Aragon (section)

== After the war ==

At the [[liberation of France]], Aragon became one of the leading Communist intellectuals, assuming political responsibilities in the ''[[:fr:Comité national des écrivains|Comité national des écrivains]]'' (National Committee of Writers). He celebrated the role of the general secretary of the PCF, [[Maurice Thorez]], and defended the [[Kominform]]'s condemnation of the [[Titoist]] regime in [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]].{{citation needed|date=November 2016}}

Sponsored by Thorez, Aragon was elected, in 1950, to the central committee of the PCF. His post, however, did not protect him from all forms of criticism. Thus, when his journal ''Les Lettres françaises'' published a drawing by [[Pablo Picasso]] on the occasion of Stalin's death in March 1953, Aragon was forced to make excuses to his critics, who judged the drawing iconoclastic. Through the years, he had been kept informed of [[Stalinist]] repression by his Russian-born wife, and so his political line evolved.{{citation needed|date=November 2016}}

=== ''Les Lettres françaises'' (1953–1972) ===
In the days following the disappearance of ''Ce soir'', in March 1953, Aragon became the director of ''L'Humanité''{{'}}s literary supplement, ''[[French Letters|Les Lettres françaises]]''. After Khrushchev's "[[On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences|Secret Speech]]" about Stalin delivered in 1956, Aragon suffered a deep personal crisis, but it was not until the 1960s when he started openly criticizing the Soviet regime.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wb9rEAAAQBAJ | isbn=978-1-5381-6858-5 | title=Historical Dictionary of French Literature | date=15 May 2022 | publisher=Rowman & Littlefield }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lblcBR7uDoYC | isbn=978-1-4381-0837-7 | title=The Facts on File Companion to World Poetry: 1900 to the Present | date=2008 | publisher=Infobase }}</ref> In 1956, Aragon didn't support the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956|Hungarian Revolution]],<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lblcBR7uDoYC | isbn=978-1-4381-0837-7 | title=The Facts on File Companion to World Poetry: 1900 to the Present | date=16 March 2024 | publisher=Infobase }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ef4OEAAAQBAJ | isbn=978-963-386-304-6 | title=Ideological Storms: Intellectuals, Dictators, and the Totalitarian Temptation | date=12 June 2019 | publisher=Central European University Press }}</ref> provoking the dissolution of the ''Comité national des écrivains'', which [[Vercors (writer)|Vercors]] quit, and was granted the [[Lenin Peace Prize]], but later he condemned Soviet totalitarianism and authoritarianism, opened his magazines to dissidents, and condemned [[show trial]]s against intellectuals (in particular the 1966 [[Sinyavsky–Daniel trial]]). 

Assisted by [[Pierre Daix]], Aragon started in the 1960s a struggle against Soviet policies and its consequences in Eastern Europe. He published the writings of dissidents such as [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] or [[Milan Kundera]]. He strongly supported the student movement of [[May 68]], although the PCF was sceptical about it. The crushing of the [[Prague Spring]] in 1968 led him to a critical preface published in a translation of one of [[Milan Kundera]]'s books (''La Plaisanterie'').<ref>French: ''« Et voilà qu'une fin de nuit, au transistor, nous avons entendu la condamnation de nos illusions perpétuelles... »''</ref> In 1970, he supported the Nobel Prize awarded to Solzhenitsyn.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Obolensky |first1=Alexander P. |date=16 March 1971 |title=Solzhenitsyn in the Mainstream of Russian Literature |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40866341 |journal=Canadian Slavonic Papers / Revue Canadienne des Slavistes |volume=13 |issue=2/3 |pages=131–139 |doi=10.1080/00085006.1971.11091233 |jstor=40866341}}</ref> Despite his criticisms, Aragon remained an official member of the PCF's central committee until his death.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Courte biographie de Louis Aragon |url=https://www.toupie.org/Biographies/Aragon.htm |access-date=2025-05-04 |website=www.toupie.org}}</ref> The monetary loss caused by ''Les Lettres françaises'' led to its ceasing publication in 1972. It was later re-founded.

=== The publisher ===

Beside his journalistic activities, Louis Aragon was also CEO of the ''[[:fr:Éditeurs français réunis|Editeurs français réunis]]'' (EFR) publishing house, heir of two publishing houses founded by the Resistance, ''La Bibliothèque française'' and ''Hier et Aujourd'hui''. He directed the EFR along with [[Madeleine Braun]], and in the 1950s published French and Soviet writers commonly related to the "[[Socialist Realism]]" current. Among other works, the EFR published [[André Stil]]'s ''Premier choc'', which owed to the future [[Goncourt Academy|Goncourt Academician]] the [[Stalin Peace Prize|Stalin Prize]] in 1953. They also published other writers, such as [[Julius Fučík (journalist)|Julius Fučík]], [[Vítězslav Nezval]], [[Rafael Alberti]], [[Yiannis Ritsos]] and [[Vladimir Mayakovsky]]. 

At the beginning of the 1960s, the EFR brought to public knowledge the works of non-Russian Soviet writers, such as [[Chinghiz Aitmatov]], or Russian writers belonging to the [[Khrushchev Thaw]], such as [[Galina Nikolaeva]], [[Yevgeny Yevtushenko]]'s ''Babi Iar'' in 1967, etc. The EFR also published the first novel of [[Christa Wolf]] in 1964, and launched the poetic collection ''Petite sirène'', which collected works by [[Pablo Neruda]], [[Eugène Guillevic]], [[Nicolás Guillén]], but also less known poets such as [https://dominiquegrandmont.wordpress.com/ Dominique Grandmont], [[Alain Lance]] or [[Jean Ristat]].

=== Return to surrealism and death===

Free from both his marital and editorial responsibilities (having ended publication of ''[[Les Lettres Françaises]]'' – ''[[L'Humanité]]''{{'}}s literary supplement – in 1972), Aragon was free to return to his surrealist roots. During the last ten years of his life, he published at least two further novels: ''[[:fr:Henri Matisse, roman|Henri Matisse Roman]]'' and ''Les Adieux''.

Aragon died on 24 December 1982, his friend [[Jean Ristat]] sitting up with him. He was buried in the garden of [[:fr:Moulin de Villeneuve (Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines)|Moulin de Villeneuve]], in his property of [[Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines]], alongside his wife Elsa Triolet.<ref>{{cite book|author=Gale Cengage|title=Modern French Poets|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XsoUAQAAIAAJ|year=2002|publisher=Gale Group|isbn=978-0-7876-5252-4|page=32}}</ref>

He was and still is a popular poet in France because many of his poems have been set to music and sung by various composers and singers: Lino Léonardi, [[Hélène Martin]], [[Léo Ferré]] (the first one to dedicate an entire LP to Aragon, with his 1961 breakthrough ''[[Les Chansons d'Aragon]]'' album), [[Jean Ferrat]], [[Georges Brassens]], [[Alain Barrière]], [[Isabelle Aubret]], [[Nicole Rieu]], [[:fr:Monique Morelli|Monique Morelli]], [[Marc Ogeret]], [[Marjo Tal]], ''et al.'' Many of his poems set to music by Jean Ferrat have been translated into German by Didier Caesar (alias Dieter Kaiser) and are sung by his Duo.