Gamarra, Pierre

Born July 10, 1919, in Toulouse. French writer. Member of the French Communist Party.

Gamarra’s poetry angrily reveals the horrors of war (the collection Study of Damnation, 1944), glorifies the valor of the antifascists (the collection Song of the Arras Fortress, 1951), and appeals for peace (the collection Love Song, 1959). In lyric prose he portrays the needs of his native Toulouse (the novel Children of Poverty, 1950; Russian translation, 1954) and the secrets of the forests and rivers of Languedoc (the novel The Woman and the River, 1951). Gamarra describes the toils of the peasantry (the novel Midnight Roosters, 1950) and their fears and sufferings (the novel Rosalie Brousse, 1953), and he expresses the anger of those who fought single-handedly against fascism (the novel The Schoolteacher, 1955). He believes that people who have found meaning in life in the struggle for socialism can control war through reason and will (the novel The Lilac of St.-Lazare, 1951 [Russian translation, 1957]; the collection of short stories Hands of the People, 1953 [Russian translation, 1959]; and The Potter’s Loves, 1957). He believes in their loyalty to the memory of the fallen (the novel Simon’s Wife, 1961) and in international solidarity (the novel Pyrenean Rhapsody, 1963; Russian translation, 1964). In his novels of various genres, including historical adventure novels— The Mysteries of Toulouse, 1967; Gold and Blood, 1971—there is a recurring leitmotiv of man’s responsibility for the fate of the world.