Joseph Ginestou

Joseph François Eugène Ginestou, often published as Jo Ginestou, was born in Finestret in 1882 and died there in 1957. Sources describe him as a writer and poet from Roussillon who wrote in French, while also serving for many years in the colonial administration, including work connected with French Indochina.

He moved in literary circles in Paris in the 1910s, later founded or directed several short-lived journals, and contributed to publications such as Le Coq Catalan and Les Belles Lettres. In the 1920s he was known on radio as a "fantaisiste" poet, and his poetry was noted for its playful, libertine tone.

His books show that range clearly. Alongside poetry collections, he wrote La femme doit-elle voter? (Le pour et le contre), a 1910 doctoral thesis on women’s suffrage, and he is also associated with later works such as Dzim. Boum and Boul' Mich', le Quartier Latin à la belle époque.