The sad news came on Wednesday, November 8. Journalist and writer Laurent Greilsamer, former head of the newspaper Le Monde and co-founder of the weekly Le 1, has died following a cardiac arrest at the age of 70, the editions of Le 1 and his family announced in a statement.
Laurent Greilsamer launched Le 1 in 2014, with Eric Fottorino, Natalie Thiriez and Henry Hermand. This weekly, which is presented in the form of a fold-out sheet, has the principle of covering only one subject per issue. Subsequently, Laurent Greilsamer co-founded the quarterlys America (2017), Zadig (2019) and Légende (2020). Prior to that, he had a long career at the daily newspaper Le Monde, which he joined in 1977 and of which he was deputy director from 2007 to 2011.
Also a writer, he had written some fifteen books, including current affairs and four biographies. Among them, "Le Prince foudroyé: la vie de Nicolas de Staël" (Fayard, 1998), which won the Grand Prix des lectrices from Elle magazine. His latest book, "The World According to Picasso", was published in 2020 by Tallandier.
The former director of Le Monde, Eric Fottorino, was keen to highlight some of Laurent Greilsamer's qualities: "He was smiling, benevolent, endearing, and the elegance of his appearance was the right reflection of his spirit," he listed in an article published this Thursday morning in the columns of Le Monde.