Jean Cassou Jean Cassou ( 9 July 1897 – 19 January 1986 ) was a French writer , art critic , poet and member of the French Resistance during World War II . Biography . Jean Cassou was born at Deusto , near Bilbao , ( Spain ) . His father was French ( with a Mexican mother ) and his mother Milagros Ibañez Pacheco was from Andalucia ( Spain ) . His father , who had the prestigious degree " Ingénieur des Arts et Manufactures " , died when Jean was only sixteen . His mother gave Jean and his sister basic Spanish culture , and he learnt French and Spanish classics side by side at school . Jean did secondary studies at the Lycée Charlemagne while providing for the needs of his family , then began study for the " Licence d ' espagnol " ( Spanish ) degree at the Faculty of Letters in Paris . This he followed in 1917 and 1918 by getting a Masters degree at the Bayonne Lycée and , though interrupted many times , was not mobilised in World War I . He was Secretary to Pierre Louÿs , writing from 1921 to 1929 his monthly chronicle " Spanish Letters " in the cultural magazine " Le Mercure de France " ( of which he was editor ) . He became in 1923 the writer for the Ministry of State Education and in 1926 published his first novel . In 1932 Jean Cassou became an inspector of historic monuments . In 1934 he became a member of the Vigilance Committee of anti - fascist intellectuals and director from 1936 of the review " Europe " . In 1936 he was a member of the cabinet of Jean Zay , Minister of State Education and of the Art - schools of the Popular front . He was then in favour of the Spanish Republic and socialism , and approached the communist party – but broke with then in 1939 at the time of the Germano - Soviet pact . On the approach of the German army , he went to the castle at Compiègne and devoted himself to the safeguard of the national heritage . Relieved of his post as conservator at the Museum of Modern Art by the Vichy régime , he joined the Resistance in September 1940 , writing its first leaflets . Among his friends who shared his views were Claude Aveline and Agnès Humbert and they founded the clandestine group the Groupe du musée de l ' Homme , together with Boris Vildé , Anatole Lewitsky and Paul Rivet . With Claude Aveline , Agnès Humbert , Simone Martin - Chauffier and Marcel Abraham , he drafted the group ' s periodical called " Résistance " ( six numbers between December 1940 and March 1941 ) . When many members of the group were arrested , he escaped the Gestapo and took refuge at Toulouse . He was agent of the " Bertaux group " in August 1941 , was arrested in December for his activities at the Musée de l ' Homme and sentenced to a year in a Vichy prison where he composed in his head , there being no possibility of writing anything down , his " Thirty - three sonnets composed in secret " , which were published in 1944 under the pseudonym of " Jean Noir " . Freed after a year in prison , he was sent by the ST to an internment camp at Saint - Sulpice ( Tarn ) . After a month , following a plea from the Resistance to the director of ST , he was released in June 1943 and continued his active work for the Resistance using the pseudonyms " Alain " and Fournier " . He became inspector of the southern zone . The provisional government of the French Republic in Algeria named him in June 1944 as Commissioner of the Republic for the Toulouse Region . In August , at the time of the liberation of the town , his car met an armed German patrol : two of his companions were killed and he was left for dead . He spent three weeks in a coma . General Charles de Gaulle came to his bedside to present him with the Croix de la Libération . Though his job was replaced he kept the title , but resigned after convalescing for a year . In 1945 Jean Cassou regained his post as Chief of Conservation at the national museums , a post he kept until 1965 . In 1971 he received the " Grand Prix national des Lettres " and in 1983 the " grand Prix de la Société des Gens de Lettres " for the whole of his work . He died on 18 January 1986 and is buried in the Cimetière de Thiais , near Paris . He was a militant activist for the Peace Movement and brother - in - law of the philosopher Vladimir Jankélévitch . A bronze bust by Madeleine de Tézenas is in the Place de la Résistance in Toulouse .