His journalistic career started with an internship at the newspaper Progress in Lyon, before taking him to Literary Figaro from 1958. After the disappearance of this weekly in 1971, he took the position of editor-in-chief at Figarowhich he left in 1974 following the arrival of Jean d’Ormesson.
He then founded the magazine Read and works as a columnist for Point And the Sunday Journal. He has also left his mark on the world of radio, particularly among Europe 1 in the early 1970s, and RTL during the 80s.
Launched one evening in January 1975, Apostrophes quickly won the hearts of French viewers, with a weekly audience of 2 to 3 million people during its 15 years of broadcast. In all, Bernard Pivot hosted 724 episodes of this show, which remains a reference point in French television history until 1990.
The leading literary magazine in France received renowned writersfrom Marguerite Duras to Alexandre Solzhenitsyn, via Vladimir Nabokov, Marguerite Yourcenar, Susan Sontag, Milan Kundera, Georges Simenon, John Le Carré, Umberto Eco, or even Charles Bukowski in a now cult show, where the writer left the heavily alcoholic show.
Political figures too, like the Dalai Lama or François Mitterrand, thinkers like Pierre Bourdieu or Claude Lévi-Strauss, or even actors from the world of culture, such as Marcello Mastroianni, Jean-Luc Godard, Georges Brassens, Serge Gainsbourg or Renaud.
In 1990, a controversy broke out following an interview with Gabriel Matzneff where Bernard Pivot, in a light tone, addressed the writer’s pedophile confessions without condemnation.
From 1991 to 2001, Bernard Pivot hosted the show Culture broth on Antenna 2 Then France 2, and from 2002 to 2005, Double I on France 2 and TV5 Monde.
In 2004, he was the first journalist to be elected to the Goncourt Academyof which he will have served as president until 2019.
As an author, his first novel, Love in voguewas published in 1959 by Calmann-Lévy, inaugurating a long series of varied works, ranging from chronicles like Life oh my! (1966, Grasset) to essays such as Literary Critics (1968, Flammarion). The journalist revealed himself to be eclectic in his texts, including sports with Football in green on the‘AS Saint-Étienne (1980, Hachette-Gamma), dictionaries with Wine lovers dictionary (Plon, 2006), or on the French language, in particular 100 words to save (2004, Albin Michel) and The Dictations of Bernard Pivot (2006, Albin Michel).
More autobiographies: Words of my life (2011, Albin Michel) and Yes, but what is the question ? (2012, NiL Éditions).
Among the honors bestowed upon him, he proudly counted his inclusion in the Larousse dictionary, a recognition of its lasting impact on French culture. A nod to his childhood too, when this son of grocers got into literature through diligent reading of a dictionary.
The library of Quincié-en-Beaujolais has borne his name since 1994, the municipal school of Vaux-en-Beaujolais since 2014 and the media library of Caluire-et-Cuire, near Lyon where he is a native, since May 2019. He was immortalized on the Lyonnais fresco, an 800 m² mural located on a building in the 1st arrondissement of Lyon which illustrates twenty-four historical figures and six contemporary personalities of the city.
READ – June 1978: Pivot spoke SF with Curval in Apostrophes
Another sign that he had become a symbol of French letters and culture, Bernard Pivot has played his own role several times in the cinema and in television films, including Dark Ages by Canadian director Denys Arcand in 2007. More recently, in 2021, he plays a bookseller in Swing Date by Gérome Barry.
If he had refused the Legion of Honor To protect his independence, he was honored with other international distinctions, including the Order of Quebec and the Order of Canada. Golden 7s for his television shows too, or, among others, the Alphonse-Allais Prize in 2009.
Among the tributes to the journalist, we can cite another journalist, Stéphane Bern, who mentions “ fond memories ” of a man “ playful, funny, mocking and infinitely good », when Pierre Haski is categorical: “ Bernard Pivot created one of the best shows in the history of French TV. » And remembers: “ His disappearance touches me all the more since he invited me for my first book in 1987: never felt as much at stake as for “Apostrophe”. It weighed heavily on the destiny of a book! »
On the political side, the President of the National Assembly, Member of Parliament for Yvelines, Yaël Braun-Pivet expresses his thoughts to his family and loved ones.
Among the writers, we can cite, among others, Alain Mabanckou. According to him, ” Bernard Pivot was a gigantic bridge, and literature suffered an immense loss. He is, in my eyes, one of those mediators for whom I would say that in Europe too an old man who dies is a library that burns… RIP. »
The SGDL also made a tribute to Bernard Pivot :
Author of more than twenty works, Bernard Pivot was a lover of words, the French language, literature and writers. Thanks to literary programs like Open the quotes, Apostrophes, Culture broth Or Double IBernard Pivot has tirelessly given literature for more than thirty years a place of choice on television, but also on the radio and in the press, by sharing his passion for culture with several generations of listeners and readers.
President of the Goncourt Academy since 2014, Bernard Pivot has been a member of the Société des Gens de Lettres since 1975, the year in which the show Apostrophes was created.
The SGDL pays tribute to the man of letters and shares the grief of his family and loved ones.
The Goncourt Academy shared a statement:
It is with deep sadness that the Goncourt Academy learned of the death of Bernard Pivot who was not only one of its members, but also its president from 2013 to 2019. When he joined our circle in 2004, Bernard knew to make the academy benefit from his insatiable literary curiosity, his unfailing commitment to the service of the world of letters, as well as his honesty and high morals.
He worked hard to ensure that the academy adjusted its regulations so that the prizes it awarded each year were free from any suspicion. Tirelessly, he devoted a cheerful energy to the influence of our missions, both in France and abroad. It is with tenderness, fraternity and emotion that we will remember him as a learned but never pedantic being, for whom camaraderie, good humor and good living were values as important as literary excellence.
To his grieving family, we send our most sincere condolences and affectionate thoughts.
Note that for “ To pay tribute to this great lover of words and books, Augustin Trapenard dedicates a special program to him, Wednesday May 8 at 9:05 p.m., on France 5 » in La Grande Librairie.
Photo credits: ActuaLitté, CC BY SA 2.0
