author
Jean Joseph Renaud
1873–1953
A prizewinning fencer who also wrote widely, he brought the speed and precision of the duel into popular fiction, journalism, and practical writing on self-defense. His work sits at an unusual crossroads of sport, street survival, and early 20th-century French literary life.
1 Audiobook
Le clavecin hanté
by Jean Joseph Renaud
About the author
Born in Paris on January 16, 1873, Jean-Joseph Renaud was a French writer, journalist, playwright, and accomplished fencer. He competed in fencing at the 1900 Summer Olympics, and his reputation in the sport remained an important part of his public identity throughout his career.
Alongside his athletic life, he was a notably prolific author. French library records and reference sources connect him with a large body of novels, stories, and other writing, and some accounts note that he also published under pen names including Jean Carmant and Jean Cassard. He is especially remembered today for books such as L'Escrime and La Défense dans la rue, works that helped preserve early 20th-century ideas about fencing and self-defense.
Renaud died in Suresnes on December 7, 1953. For modern readers, his appeal often lies in that rare combination of skills: he was not simply writing about action and combat from imagination, but drawing on lived experience in both literary and sporting circles.