Abel Bonnard

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Abel Bonnard (December 19, 1883-May 31, 1968) was a French poet and novelist. Born in Poitiers, his early education was in Marseilles with secondary studies at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris. A student of literature, he was a graduate of the École du Louvre and a member of the École française de Rome.

Politically, a follower of Charles Maurras, his views evolved towards fascism in the 1930s. Bonnard was one of the ministers of National Education under the Vichy regime (1942-44). He was nicknamed "la Gestapette" by French nationalists, a portmanteau of Gestapo and tapette, the latter French slang for a homosexual.

A member of the Académie française, Bonnard was one of four members expelled from the institution after World War II for collaboration with Germany. He was condemned in absentia to death by the French government for his wartime activities. He found political asylum in Spain under the Francisco Franco government. In 1960, he returned to France to face retrial for his crimes. He received a symbolic sentence of 10 years banishment to be counted from 1945, but dissatisfied with the verdict of guilty, he chose to return to Spain where he lived out the remainder of his life.