The Press: Rage of Paris

In France, where literature can be a hot front-page issue, the biggest story of the week—and the year's liveliest press brawl —raged around the blonde head of an eight-year-old poetess. Was little Minou Drouet a genius or a fraud?

When Publisher Rene Julliard saw the first verses in Minou's childish scrawl, he thought he had found a literary prodigy even greater than his last discovery. Teenager Franchise Sagan. whose short, sexy Bonjour Tristesse is an international bestseller. He brought Minou from Brittany, along with 49-year-old Spinster Claude Drouet. who had adopted the child at age of two. Then he brought out a...

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