Novelist and editor Jacques Lanzmann remains best-known in his native France as the longtime lyrical collaborator of pop idol Jacques Dutronc, writing a series of now-classic songs that were the soundtrack accompanying the student uprisings of the late 1960s. Born in Bois-Colombe, France on May 4, 1927, Lanzmann was the second child of Jewish parents who divorced on the eve of World War II. After a brief stint as a farmhand in the Auvergne region, he joined the Resistance effort at the age of 16, fighting alongside his older brother Claude (later the filmmaker behind the landmark Holocaust documentary #Shoah). After the Germans captured him, Lanzmann was slated to die before a Nazi firing squad but managed his escape. He settled in Paris, working as a truck driver and welder while writing a novel in his off hours. Upon completing the book Lanzmann migrated to Chile, where he mined copper; in the interim Claude passed his sibling's manuscript to Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, who published the novel in 1954 under the title -La Glace Est Rompue. A year later, Lanzmann published his second books, -Le Rat d'Amérique, a fictionalized retelling of his experiences in South America. In all, he would publish some 50 novels throughout his lifetime, a rate of roughly one per year, in addition to serving as a theater critic, screenwriter, and broadcaster. In 1963 Lanzmann and fashion photographer Daniel Filipacchi co-founded the men's periodical Lui, and the French edition of Playboy; Lui was his primary creative outlet for the next five years, and remains a touchstone of the emerging French youth counterculture.

Although Lanzmann would go on to write songs for superstars including Sylvie Vartan and Sacha Distel, it is his collaboration with Dutronc that is his most enduring contribution to French pop. Their friendship began in 1965: with Vogue Records A&R director Jacques Wolfsohn in search of a new lyricist, Filipacchi suggested Lanzmann, and when it came time to cut a demo session, Wolfsohn installed his assistant Dutronc as vocalist. Wolfsohn was so impressed with the result that in 1966 he issued the demo version of Et Moi et Moi et Moi as a single -- with its insolent, mock-protest lyrics and coolly debauched vocals, the record quickly topped the French charts and vaulted Dutronc to fame across western Europe. With his tailored suits and silk ties, the singer was precisely the kind of worldly, sophisticated male who Lanzmann celebrated in the pages of Lui, and with the Prix de l'Academie Charles Cros-winning follow-up single Les Play Boys, Dutronc further established himself as the archetype of cosmopolitan elegance. In the wake of Dutronc's million-selling debut LP Les Cactus, Lanzmann and then-wife Anne Segalen spent 1967 authoring hit after hit, highlighted by J'aime les Filles and the immortal Il Est Cinq Heures, Paris S'éveille, which in 1999 was voted the definitive French song of the century. While L'Opportuniste drew on the political revolts of May 1968, most of Lanzmann's lyrics pivoted on Dutronc's larger-than-life persona; both L'Hôtesse de l'Air and L'Aventurier perfectly crystallize the singer's cynical, swaggering image via bitingly ingenious lyrics that both satirize and champion the youth generation that made Dutronc their unofficial voice.

But as Dutronc shifted his focus from music to film, his collaboration with Lanzmann went on hiatus. The songs written for Dutronc's 1975 LP L'Ile Enchanteresse heralded the end of their decade-long partnership. After several for-hire projects, most notably the French adaptation of the smash countercultural musical +Hair, Lanzmann turned away from pop as well, becoming a professional gambler and continuing his literary career to growing commercial and critical success with best-sellers including -Memories of an Amnesiac, -Rue des Mamours and -Imagine the Promised Land. But in the wake of tax problems, Lanzmann returned to a life of globetrotting -- in the autumn of his life, he embraced the Internet, and even wrote his own web blog; in early 2006, he published his final novel, the autobiographical -Une Vie de Familie. Following a long illness, Lanzmann died in Paris on June 21, 2006; said French President Jacques Chirac, "Jacques Lanzmann's songs will stay in French hearts for a long time. This generous writer led his life as an adventure novel, throughout the roads of the world." ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi