author
Léon Werth
1878–1955
A sharp-eyed French writer and art critic, he wrote with unusual honesty about war, colonialism, and everyday life in France. He is also remembered as the close friend to whom Antoine de Saint-Exupéry dedicated The Little Prince.
1 Audiobook
La maison blanche
by Léon Werth
About the author
Born in Remiremont in 1878, Léon Werth became a French novelist, essayist, journalist, and art critic known for his independent streak and clear, unsparing style. He moved in literary and artistic circles early on, and his writing developed a reputation for looking closely at society without softening its contradictions.
Werth wrote about some of the hardest subjects of his time, including World War I, colonialism, and life in France during the Second World War. His work is often described as pacifist and deeply skeptical of power, and readers still value it for its precision, moral seriousness, and refusal to look away.
Many people first encounter his name through Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, who was a close friend and dedicated The Little Prince to him. But Werth was far more than a footnote in someone else’s story: he was a prolific writer in his own right, and his books offer a vivid, human record of France in the first half of the twentieth century.