author

Emmanuel Bourcier

1880–1955

A French journalist, novelist, and war writer, he turned frontline experience and sharp reporting into books that feel immediate and human. His work ranged from fiction to documentary writing, with a life that also reached into journalism, film, and veterans’ literary circles.

1 Audiobook

Under the German shells

Under the German shells

by Emmanuel Bourcier

About the author

Born in Paris on September 19, 1880, Emmanuel Bourcier was a French man of letters whose work moved across journalism, fiction, and reportage. The Bibliothèque nationale de France identifies him as a writer, novelist, and journalist, and also notes that he sometimes wrote under the pseudonym Hubert Tourville.

Bourcier is especially remembered for writing about war and public life. His book Gens de mer received the Prix Montyon in 1916, and Paul, mon frère won the Prix de Jouy from the Académie française in 1923. Records from the BnF also describe him as a founder of the Association des écrivains combattants, later its vice-president in 1938, and note that he was made an officer of the Légion d'honneur in 1931.

His career reached beyond books alone. Sources connect him to film writing in the late 1930s, including work on Sommes-nous défendus? and the 1939 film La France est un empire. He died in Paris on March 28, 1955.