Jean Brune, Français d'Algérie. Biographie

The only irreparable defeat is oblivion. (Jean Brune, La guerre de Troie commence demain)

Jean Brune was born on March 12, 1912, in Aïn Bessem, and died in Nouméa on September 23, 1973, consumed by the loss of his Algeria, our French Algeria, for which he had fought so hard and for which he had hoped for a fraternal destiny.

On the tenth anniversary of his passing, I attempted to capture this diverse being, an artist with a light touch, a master of words conveying strong ideas, a man rich in heart, in a work published in 1983 that is now completely out of print.

Here it is, reissued in this month of March, the anniversary of his birth, and in this year 1998, the twenty-fifth since friendly hands and grieving hearts laid him to rest in the small cemetery of Païta. To the memories entrusted to me by those who loved him are added, this time, war sketches taken from life when, in a tank of the First Armored Division, he landed on the coasts of Provence on August 15, 1944, along with all the other Frenchmen of Algeria who, in a single impulse, came to participate in the moving pomp of the Battle of Liberation.

(Francine Dessaigne) - published by Editions Confrérie Castille (Ivry-sur-Seine) in 1998 - 270 pages, several sketches