Bernard Pivot, famous journalist, writer and host of cult cultural shows, lover of the French language and passionate about football and wine, died Monday May 6 at the age of 89, his daughter Cécile Pivot announced AFP. He was the man who brought literature into the living room of the French with the show “Apostrophes”, which he hosted for fifteen years, from 1975 to 1990, on Antenne 2, and which millions of viewers all followed. Friday evenings.
His taste for the French language went back to his childhood, explained Bernard Pivot in March 2016 on the occasion of the presentation of his book Help ! The words ate me. “I am a child of war. I was a refugee with my mother in a small village in Beaujolais (near Lyon), and my only books were a dictionary and The fables of the fountain. La Fontaine spoke to me about Zéphyr or Aquilon and Le Petit Larousse informed me about these strange words”, he confided. One of his greatest prides was having entered his childhood dictionary in 2013.
The greatest writers at his table
Born on May 5, 1935 in Lyon, the son of grocers, he was an average high school student, who was passionate about sport, French and history. He studied law in Lyon, then journalism in Paris. Graduated from the Journalist Training Center (CFJ) in 1957, he entered the Literary Figaro in 1958, then became head of the literary department of the Figaro. He resigned in 1974 due to a disagreement with Jean d’Ormesson, whom he later invited very often to his broadcasts.
He started on television as a host in 1973, with a literary magazine, “Ouvrez les guillemets”, broadcast on the first ORTF channel. In 1975, he founded the magazine with Jean-Louis Servan-Schreiber Read.
It’s the show “Apostrophes”, launched the same year, on the 10 January on Antenna 2 and became cult, which made him famous, with the credits Piano Concerto Number 1 by Rachmaninov.
For fifteen years (724 broadcasts), on Friday evenings, he brings together writers around a coffee table and brings the biggest names in literature into homes, from Alexander Solzhenitsyn to Marguerite Duras, from Marguerite Yourcenar to Vladimir Nabokov.
Dictation brought up to date
On the set of “Apostrophes”, we laugh a lot, we insult each other, we kiss… The public loves it and book sales follow. Bernard Pivot knows how to create intimacy with his guests and bring together improbable duos. Viewers witness unforgettable moments : François Cavanna tackling a drunk Charles Bukowski, with a famous “Shut up, Bukowski!”interviews with Alexandre Solzhenitsyn, Marguerite Duras and Patrick Modiano.
Sagan, Barthes, Bradbury, Bourdieu, Eco, The Clézio, Lévi-Strauss and even President Mitterrand will be his guests. In 1987, he clandestinely interviewed Lech Walesa in Poland. Facetiously, at the end of each show, he submits his guests to the “Pivot questionnaire”, inspired by that of Proust.
Bernard Pivot stops “Apostrophes” in June 1990. But from January 1991, he launched “Bouillon de culture”, which addresses, in addition to literature, cinema and art. He hosted it until 2001 before “Double Jeu”, on France 2, from 2002 to 2005.
Dressed in the gray coat of the teachers of yesteryear, Bernard Pivot is also the one who tries to reconcile French speakers with spelling by organizing, from 1985, the “Dicos d’or”, famous spelling championship – quickly became international – which brought dictation up to date.
This lover of literature entered the Académie Goncourt in 2004, where he was the first non-writer to be elected. Indeed, this man of letters who wrote numerous essays is the author of only two novels : Love in vogue (1959) And Yes, but what is the question ? (2012), an autobiographical novel. He will chair the Goncourt Academy from 2014 to 2019. He retires at 84 years, “to regain free and full use of one’s time”he then explains.
From the Goncourt Academy to Twitter
In recent years, he was very active on Twitter, where he shared his moods and ideas with more than a million subscribers. “I loved the constraint of 140 characters. It reminded me of my beginnings in journalism, when I was entrusted with short papers!” he confided to the magazine Our time in February 2021.
Bernard Pivot is the author of numerous essays, on the French language, but also on his two other great passions : wine and football. He remained loyal to AS Saint-Etienne and the French team. But, beyond all his activities, it was as a journalist that he liked to define himself.
He continued to write, “to keep the mind lively, joyful and curious”he confided to Paris Match in January 2021. That month he had published But life goes on (ed. Albin Michel), in which he recounted the daily life of a man who has just turned 82 years.