Lucien Herr: Socialist Librarian of the French Third Republic - Paperback

by Anne-Cécile Grandmougin (Author), Tegan Raleigh (Translator)

Lucien Herr was the director of the library of the Ecole Normale Sup rieure, the leading academic institution of France, from 1888 to 1926. In addition to being a library innovator of the time, he was an influential socialist and an early voice in the Dreyfus Affair. From his citadel in the library, he influenced the thinking of France's emerging socialist leaders, Jean Jaur s and L on Blum. He had the option of a career as a professor, with all of the privileges that it would have accorded him, but chose instead to remain a librarian with a hidden world-historical role.

Anne-C cile Grandmougin's biographical work has been translated into English, for a readership of progressive librarians who will sympathize with Herr's vision of libraries as the heart of shared intellectual progress for human liberation and the common good. Readers will learn about Herr's intellectual foundations, his work at the Ecole Normale, his writing career, and his innovations as the head of the "Mus e pedagogique."

Anne-C cile Grandmougin is Conservateur des biblioth ques, Universit Paris XIII.