Claude Vigée

Claude Vigée was born on January 3, 1921, in Bischwiller. After finishing his schooling, he undertook studies in medicine. In 1940 he was forced into exile to southwest France, where he participated in the Jewish Resistance, before reaching the United States in 1943. Doctor of Letters, Claude Vigée teaches French and European literature at Ohio State University, then at Brandeis University. In 1950 he published his first major collection of poetry, La lutte avec l’ange. In the course of his career he met many great French writers, including Louis Aragon, Pierre Emmanuel, André Gide, Saint-John Perse, and Albert Camus. In 1960 he was appointed professor of Romance and Comparative Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Once retired, he settled permanently in Paris. His literary work, which includes poetry and essays, many of which evoke his life experience in Bischwiller and Alsace and are marked by the theme of the heartbreak associated with exile, has been rewarded with numerous prizes, including the Burckhardt Prize, the Fémina Vacaresco Prize, the Würth Prize, the Grand Prix de l’Académie Française, and the Grand Bretzel d’Or. Claude Vigée is an honorary citizen of the city of Bischwiller.