Biography
Joseph Delteil (20 April 1894 – 12 April 1978) was a French writer and poet. Born in Villar-en-Val in the Aude department, he grew up in rural surroundings and received his early education in Limoux and at the Collège Saint-Stanislas in Carcassonne.
His first novel, Sur le fleuve Amour (1922), brought him to the attention of the surrealists, including Louis Aragon and André Breton. In 1925 he published the novel Jeanne d'Arc, which won the Prix Femina and later formed the basis for Carl Theodor Dreyer's film The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), on which Delteil worked as a writer. He broke with the surrealist group shortly afterwards.
After a period of illness in the early 1930s, Delteil left Paris and settled with his wife Caroline Dudley near Montpellier, where he lived as a vigneron and wrote less frequently. His later works include biographies and reflections on spirituality and rural life.
