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Catherine Paysan

French writer (1926–2020)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 29, 2026
Entity authorityQ1051027 ↗
Source-derived summary

Annie Hausen (4 August 1926 – 22 April 2020), known by her pen name Catherine Paysan, was a French writer. She won the Grand prix de littérature de la SGDL for her lifetime’s writing.

The daughter of Auguste and Marthe Roulette, she was born Annie Roulette in Aulaines in the Sarthe department of France. She attended a lycée for girls in Le Mans from 1938 to 1939 and then the boys' lycée (now the Lycée Montesquieu) from 1939 to 1945 while the girls' school was being used as a hospital. She taught at a collège in Paris, where she met her future husband, a Hungarian; after her marriage, she retired from teaching and returned to her native village.

She published several novels, five autobiographical works, two collections of poetry and two plays, and adapted several of her works for film. In 1977, she received the Grand prix de littérature de la SGDL for the whole of her work.

Paysan was named an Officier of the Legion of Honour in 2011. She was also named a Knight in the French National Order of Merit.

Selected works

Écrit pour l'âme des cavaliers, poetry (1956)

Nous autres les Sanchez, novel (1961), received the Grand prix du Roman from the Société des gens de lettres

Histoire d'une salamandre, novel (1963)

Les Faiseurs de chance, stories (1963)

Je m’appelle Jéricho, novel (1964)

Les Feux de la Chandeleur, novel (1966), received the Prix des libraires de France, adapted for film as Hearth Fires (English title)

Le Nègre de Sables, novel (1968)

Les Oiseaux migrateurs, play (1969)

Comme l'or d'un anneau, autobiographical novel (1971)

L’Empire du taureau, novel (1974)

Pour le plaisir, autobiographical novel (1976)

Le Clown de la rue Montorgeuil (1978)

Dame suisse sur un canapé de reps vert, novel (1981)

Le Rendez-vous de Strasbourg, novel (1984)

La Colline d'en face, autobiographical novel (1987)

52 poèmes pour une année, poetry (1989)

La Route vers la fiancée, novel (1992)

Les Désarmés, stories (2000), received the Prix Goncourt de la Nouvelle

La Prière parallèle, novel (2003)

L’amour là-bas en Allemagne, autobiographical novel (2006)

References

External links

Catherine Paysan at IMDb

"Catherine Paysan's web site" (in French).

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Catherine Paysan” as french writer (1926–2020). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Catherine, Paysan and French.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1926, 2020, 1938, 1939—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1926-08-04. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Catherine, Paysan and French providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Catherine Paysan”, the useful work is to connect “french writer (1926–2020)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1051027. VIAF identifies the subject as 41844736. The Library of Congress control number is n50007773. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1926, 2020, 1938 and 1939.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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  2. Expand the search: follow Catherine Paysan primary sources, Catherine Paysan archive and Catherine research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Catherine Paysan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.