Editing Cherbourg (section)

===Literature===
[[File:Jeanniot Célestine.jpg|thumb|right|Célestine, of the ''Journal d’une femme de chambre'' [''Diary of a Chambermaid''], by Georges Jeanniot, ''Le Cri de Paris'', 18 November 1900.]]

The Jacques Prévert Municipal Library, founded in 1831 and opened in 1832, holds the second largest collection in the region, after that of Caen. The purchase of the library of the local scholar Henri-François Duchevreuil, in 1830, complements the 1,855 volumes of the district's library, created at 24 ''Rue Tour-Carrée'', in application of the decree of the Convention of 8 pluviôse year II<ref name="histbiblio">{{cite web|url=http://www.ville-cherbourg.fr/fr/cherbourg_octeville/culture/bibliotheques/bibliotheque_jacques_prev/histoire_de_la_bibliotheq.asp|title=Histoire de la Bibliothèque Municipale|work=ville de Cherbourg-Octeville|access-date=24 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090214200622/http://ville-cherbourg.fr/fr/cherbourg_octeville/culture/bibliotheques/bibliotheque_jacques_prev/histoire_de_la_bibliotheq.asp|archive-date=14 February 2009|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref> and composed essentially of works seized from emigrants and deportees.<ref name=ccfr>{{cite web|url=http://ccfr.bnf.fr/rnbcd_visu/BibdetailServlet?numnotice=6911|title=Bibliothèque municipale Jacques Prévert|work=CCFR|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080623014228/http://ccfr.bnf.fr/rnbcd_visu/BibdetailServlet?numnotice=6911|archive-date=23 June 2008|df=dmy-all}}</ref> Several donations were then made, including a legacy of 3,000 works by {{Interlanguage link|Augustin Asselin|fr}} in 1844 (with twenty-six [[Incunable|incunabula]] and a ninth-century manuscript [[The Jewish War|''De bello iudaico'']] [The Jewish War] of [[Josephus|Flavius Josephus]], which remains the oldest document in the library) and a gift in 1877 from Jérôme-Frédéric Bignon, Mayor of [[Le Rozel]] and heir to the king's librarians. It also has a Norman [[fonds]], an old fonds devoted to botany and another to travel.<ref name=histbiblio /> Housed in a wing of the City Hall in 1855, and then at 9 ''Rue Thiers'' (''Rue Talluau'') from 1896, the library moved into the cultural centre in June 1981, taking the name of [[Jacques Prévert]], who had died four years earlier in [[La Hague]].<ref name=ccfr /> The library also participates in the ''Normannia'' project of the Norman digital library.

The former barracks of the Abbey, dating back to the start of the works of the large dam in 18th-century, has housed one of the five regional centres of history of the National Navy, alongside [[Brest, France|Brest]], [[Lorient]], [[Rochefort, Charente-Maritime|Rochefort]] and [[Toulon]], since 1970. The archives of the maritime district of the [[English Channel|Channel]] and the [[North Sea]] are grouped here, and the library of the Navy founded in 1836 in Cherbourg and specialising in maritime history with its 23,000 works.

Each year, a network of writing workshops are organised in the metropolitan area, the ''Mercurielles'', and the Festival of the Book and of Youth Comic Books (since 1987).

The Biennial of the 9th Art exhibits the works of [[comics|comic]] cartoonists ([[Enki Bilal]] in 2002, [[François Schuiten]] and [[Benoît Peeters]] in 2004, [[André Juillard]] in 2006, and [[Jacques de Loustal|Loustal]] in 2008). In 2002, with the support of the City Hall of Cherbourg, Enki Bilal had planned to create a mural in the old ''gare maritime'' to represent the history of migration in the place; This project was rejected on the basis of an official complaint by {{Interlanguage link|Bernard Cauvin|fr}}, president of the {{Interlanguage link|Communauté urbaine de Cherbourg|fr|3=Communauté urbaine de Cherbourg|lt=CUC}} and the [[Cité de la Mer]].<ref>{{citation|title=Fresque de Bilal annulée : incompréhension des Amis de la gare transatlantique|work=Ouest-France|date=7 December 2002}}</ref>

Cherbourg-Octeville is the seat of two publishing houses, ''Isoète'' founded in 1985 and {{Interlanguage link|Le Point du jour (Cherbourg-Octeville)|fr|3=Le Point du jour (Cherbourg-Octeville)|lt=''Le Point du jour''}} established in 1996.

====Cherbourg-Octeville in literature====
*[[Honoré de Balzac]] cites the engineer Joseph Cachin, constructor of the port of Cherbourg, among the men of genius in ''[[Le Curé de village]]'' [The Village Priest] and ''[[La Duchesse de Langeais]]'' [The Duchess of Langeais].<ref>{{Citation|id=Les cordes avaient assez de jeu pour offrir aux fureurs des vagues cette courbure étudiée par un ingénieur, feu [[Joseph Cachin|Cachin]], l'immortel créateur du port de Cherbourg|publisher=Édition {{Interlanguage link|Charles Furne|fr|3=Charles Furne|lt=Furne}}|author=Honoré de Balzac|title=La Comédie humaine|volume=9|page=231}}</ref> Cherbourg is also present in ''[[Le Réquisitionnaire]]'' [The Recruit].<ref>{{Citation|publisher=Édition {{Interlanguage link|Charles Furne|fr|3=Charles Furne|lt=Furne}}|author=Honoré de Balzac|title=La Comédie humaine|volume=15|pages=325–326}}</ref>
*[[Octave Mirbeau]], [[The Diary of a Chambermaid (novel)|''Le Journal d'une femme de chambre'']] [The Diary of a Chambermaid], 1900: In the final chapter, Celestine became the owner of a cafe in Cherbourg
*[[Remy de Gourmont]], ''Un cœur virginal'' [A Virginal Heart], 1907
*[[Ernest Psichari]], ''L'Appel des armes'' [The Call to Arms], 1913
*Gilles Rosset, ''Le Vent dominant'' [The Prevailing Wind], Grasset, 1979
*[[Alexis Salatko]], ''Vingt deux nuances de gris'' [Twenty-two Shades of Grey], 1990
*[[Jean-Philippe Arrou-Vignod]], ''L’omelette au sucre'' [The Omelette with Sugar], Gallimard, Folio Junior, 1999
*Robert Sinsoilliez, ''Une balle pour rien à Cherbourg'' [A Bullet for Nothing to Cherbourg], 2000
*{{cite book|first=Alexis|last=Salatko|title=Un fauteuil au bord du vide|language=fr|trans-title=A Chair at the Edge of the Vacuum|publisher=Fayard|location=Paris|year=2007|isbn=978-2-213-62615-4}}
* Ken Follett's novel ''[[The Pillars of the Earth]]'' features Cherbourg as the hometown of Jacques Cherbourg, a Frenchman washed ashore in England during the [[European Middle Ages]]. His son, Jack Jackson, travels to France as an adult and meets his father's family in Cherbourg.
* Kimberly Brubaker Bradley set her novel, ''[[For Freedom: The Story of a French Spy]]'' in Cherbourg. The narrator, Suzanne Hall (née David), is a spy for the [[French Resistance]].
* Cherbourg (or to be precise its analog in the [[Lord Darcy (character)|Lord Darcy]] universe) is the setting for [[Randall Garrett]]'s short story "A Case of Identity" and is part of the backdrop for his novel ''[[Too Many Magicians]]''.