“The writer is silent. Man writes anyway.” André Chamson facing up to the cursed times (1939–1945)

Less known than some of his illustrious contemporaries (Malraux, Giono, Saint-Exupéry), André Chamson is nonetheless a key early twentieth-century figure who devoted his first works to the conflictual links that unite history and literature. We show how Chamson adapted his discourse to events, even if it meant no longer being a writer, always looking for “means of expression” to make his pacifism heard in the midst of cursed times.