Dominique Lapierre (1931-2022) was a French writer and journalist whose books reached readers in dozens of languages. He is best known for The City of Joy, a work that blends fiction and reportage and is set in a Calcutta slum. His writing draws on years of on-the-ground research and a clear interest in ordinary people caught up in large historical events.
As a young man he crossed the United States with little money, an experience that became his first book, A Dollar for a Thousand Kilometers. He then worked as a reporter for Paris Match from 1954 to 1967. From the mid-1950s he collaborated with the American journalist Larry Collins, and together they produced bestsellers on recent history, among them Is Paris Burning? and Freedom at Midnight.
After spending two years in a Calcutta slum while researching The City of Joy, Lapierre gave half of that book's royalties to local health, school and irrigation projects, and he personally oversaw how the money was spent. His reporting combines careful documentation with close attention to the people he portrayed.
His legacy lies both in popular narrative history and in the charitable work he carried out in India, a country whose language, Bengali, he spoke fluently.
Key works
- A Dollar for a Thousand Kilometers (1949), an account of his journey across the United States.
- Is Paris Burning? (1965), written with Larry Collins, about the liberation of Paris in 1944.
- O Jerusalem! (1972), with Larry Collins, on the founding of the State of Israel.
- Freedom at Midnight (1975), with Larry Collins, on India's independence.
- The City of Joy (1985), a novel set in Calcutta.
Curiosities
A recovered car
As a student he bought a convertible Chrysler for thirty dollars at a junkyard. Forty-five years later he spotted it in a magazine and won it at an auction in Poitiers.
A year-long honeymoon
After marrying in New York in 1952, the couple drove to Mexico and then travelled through Asia for nearly a year, partly funded by a radio game show prize.
Original Filopedia text based on Wikipedia (es) and Wikipedia (en) and Wikidata.