Jean-Pierre Maxence

Who was Jean-Pierre Maxence?

Jean-Pierre Maxence was a French writer who was one of the so-called Non-conformists of the 1930s. Maxence was a leading figure within the so-called Jeune Droite tendency and was associated with other Catholic writers such as Jean de Fabrègues and René Vincent.

Born in Paris as Pierre Godmé, he adopted his name after a character in Ernest Psichari's book Le Voyage du centurion. He was close to the Action française without ever actually joining the group and also wrote for the neo-Thomist La Gazette Francais. He did not come to prominence until the 1930s when he wrote on myriad topics for the various reviews produced by the non-conformists. He was at this time a member of Solidarité Française, albeit a fairly inactive one. He was critical of the far right group of writers based around the newspaper Je suis partout and had a personal hatred of Germany, although he was equally disdainful of Léon Blum. A devout Roman Catholic, his own writings revealed an empathy towards a fascism rooted firmly in Catholicism, effectively a French version of Rexism.