Hertz, Henri
HERTZ, HENRI
HERTZ, HENRI (1875–1966), French poet, novelist, and critic. Hertz, the son of an army officer of Alsatian descent, was born in Norgent-sur-Seine. Like Max *Jacob, Apollinaire, and Jean Cocteau, whom he is said to have influenced, Hertz was a poet of revolt whose writing ranged from excessive sensitivity to biting sarcasm. Of his 12 published works, the most important are Sorties (1921), Vers un monde volage (1924), and Enlèvement sans amant (1929). Hertz was a distinguished journalist, his enormous output covering politics as well as articles in avant-garde periodicals on literary and artistic figures. He also wrote much in the press on Jewish problems. In 1925 he became general secretary of France-Palestine, an early French Zionist organization. He fought in the Resistance during World War ii. Hertz's Tragédies des temps volages (1955), a collection of his verse and prose, contains the short story "Ceux de Job," which expresses the grandeur and anguish, the aspirations, and the despair of the Jewish people.
bibliography:
A. Spire, Souvenirs à bâtons rompus (1962), 239–47.
[Sidney D. Braun]