In June he produces many texts, calls for demonstrations, and expressions of solidarity with Iranian people in their struggle for democracy and an accurate recount of the election which went to the one who henceforth can only be called “unelected president Ahmadinejad.”

June 22, he is reelected, for a fifth consecutive term, president of Arte-France’s Conseil de Surveillance.

In September, the publication by Random House of Left in Dark Times, the American version of Ce grand cadavre à la renverse. The book is a Los Angeles Times bestseller and solidifies the author’s reputation in the U.S.

In August he travels to Georgia to cover the outbreak of the war provoked by South Ossetia and Abkhazia separatists and their Russian backers. His reporting appears in Le Monde and again in the European newspapers to which he is traditionally connected. In the United States, the Huffington Post publishes it, marking the beginning of a regular collaboration with the online newspaper created by Arianna Huffington.

In October Flammarion and Grasset co-publish his correspondence with Michel Houellebecq under the title Ennemis Publics. 70,000 copies are sold. Foreign rights are sold worldwide, including of course in the United States, where the book is scheduled to appear in 2010 from Random House, which is more than ever Bernard-Henri Lévy’s home port in the U.S.

He also militates for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics—China being at the forefront of support for the murderers of Khartoum. To this end he heads up, with François Zimeray (SOS Darfour) and Jackie Mamou (Urgence Darfour), a large rally at the Mutualité in Paris, where the presidential candidates are called upon to speak out on the issue.

Bernard-Henri Lévy, contrary to some of his old comrades in thought and struggle, opposes Nicolas Sarkozy and supports the candidacy of Ségolène Royal, who he points out is the only presidential candidate to have taken a clear position on the Darfur tragedy and on the mafia-like evolution of Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Some books appearing in the midst of the election, like Raphaelle Bacqué and Ariane Chemin’s La Femme Fatale, attribute to him an active, direct, and important (too important?) role in the defeated Socialist candidate’s campaign.

In the fall he publishes a new book, Ce grand cadavre à la renverse (Grasset), which prompts heated, sometimes violent critiques from the extreme left, in particular in Monde diplomatique circles. At this time the ex-comic Dieudonné, who has become an open anti-Semite, makes him one of his favorite targets.

In April, Lévy takes a strong stand, along with Fred Vargas and others, against the extradition of the former extreme-left activist Cesare Battisti, whose book Ma Cavale he publishes and prefaces.

In July, as war erupts between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon, Bernard-Henri Lévy returns to the bombed towns of Northern Israel, inspiring an extensive report published simultaneously in The New York Times Magazine and Le Monde.

He is awarded the Prix Scopus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, joining the likes of Saul Bellow, Elie Wiesel, Eric de Rothschild, and Roman Polanski, among others. Bernard-Henri Lévy dedicates an increasing amount of his time in the U.S. He is currently under contract with The New York Times Syndicate to write a syndicated column presenting his forthcoming journalistic essays.

The Bosnian translation of his work Le Lys et la Cendre is launched.
Hélène Brenkman becomes his U.S. agent.

At the request of Boston’s Atlantic Monthly, Bernard-Henri Lévy begins his U.S. travels in the footsteps of Alexis de Tocqueville, in July. And he produces, through Films du Lendemain, the filmed version of his American journey, which Michko Netchak directs with the assistance of Gilles Hertzog.

Beginning of the barrage of often very critical books devoted to Bernard-Henri Lévy’s work and life. While François Aubral et Xavier Delcourt had already brought out a Contre la nouvelle philosophie (Gallimard) in 1977 and Dominique Lecourt, a Les piètres penseurs (Flammarion) in 1999, Jade Lindgaard and Xavier de la Porte now open fire with Le B.A BA du BHL : Enquête sur le plus grand intellectuel français (La Découverte). There will quickly follow Philippe Cohen (BHL, une biographie, Fayard), Philippe Boggio, (Bernard-Henri Lévy: une vie, la Table ronde), Nicolas Beau et Olivier Toscer (Une imposture française, Les Arènes), Dominique-Emmanuel Blanchard (BHL, Bérénice et Frédéric B., Editions Le Bord de l’eau), Daniel Bensaïd ( BHL un nouveau théologien, Lignes), Richard Labévière ( BHL ou la règle du je, Le Temps des cerises).

Le Groupe d’Etudes Sartriennes and La Société internationale Simone de Beauvoir invite Bernard-Henri Lévy and Julia Kristeva to deliver the opening address of the « From Beauvoir to Sartre and from Sartre to Beauvoir » conference at the Sorbonne.

In 2003 Marc Villemain’s novel Monsieur Lévy is published by Editions Plon.

In May, he is awarded the Prix Aujourd’hui for his book Réflexions sur la Guerre, le Mal et la fin de l’Histoire [Reflections on War, Evil, and the End of History]. Another prestigious honour is accorded him, this time in Israel: the Doctorat Honoris Causa from the University of Tel Aviv.

In September, with the support of the Fondation André Lévy – created in memory of his father – BHL founds and directs the French-language monthly Les Nouvelles de Kaboul. At the same time, under the auspices of the same Fondation André Lévy, he founds Radio Renaissance et Citoyenneté in cooperation with David Gakunzi, thereby striving to create the antithesis of the Hutu-led, anti-Tutsi, “hate media” Radio-Television Mille Collines. Also thanks to the Fondation André Lévy and under the direction of his friends at the time of the war in Bosnia, Susan et Samir Landzo, is born the Kids Festival of Sarajevo which undertakes to reconstruct, through its children, the Bosnian society which was torn apart by war, massacres, and vengefulness.

At the same time, he founds L’Institut d’Etudes Levinassiennes with Benny Lévy and Alain Finkielkraut. His mother dies on August 15, 2000.

Through La Règle du Jeu he relentlessly campaigns for support for Algerian democrats.

After the film’s “flop,” Bernard-Henri Lévy leaves for Tangiers where he writes the most personal of his books, Comédie [Grasset], in which he self-deprecatingly mocks what he refers to as his “puppet”, serving up biting self-criticism of “BHL”. Comédie is also a lucid analysis of the “society of the spectacle” and of the Gary/Ajar affair. In this moving confession, the author rips off the mask. “Self-portrait, not self-fiction,” he says. Not a putting on stage, but a putting into question.

In the wake of his film, and in a memorable episode of the major political series Heure de Vérité, hosted by journalists Albert du Roy and Alain Duhamel, BHL comes forth with the idea in May 1994 of a “Sarajevo list” of candidates for the European elections, in an effort to urge Western countries to intervene in favour of the Bosnian Muslims in the civil war. This announcement and the list itself contribute significantly to increasing public opinion in support of Bosnia. Judging that the demands outlined by the Liste had been duly taken into consideration by the traditional political parties, Bernard-Henri Lévy comes out in favour of dissolving the Liste. Some members, including Léon Schwartzenberg, Marina Vlady, and Admiral Sanguinetti, refuse to withdraw, assuming the responsibility to follow through to the elections.

Along with Alain Finkielkraut, André Glucksmann, Jacques Julliard, Pascal Bruckner, and a few others, he founds the CRI (Comité de Réflexion et Intervention), protesting the ongoing massacres not only in Bosnia but also in Algeria and Rwanda. Nobel prize laureate Czelaw Milosz in named honorary President of the CRI.

In the autumn, events in Bosnia, Rwanda and Algeria inspire BHL to write a new book, La Pureté dangereuse (Grasset) in which he develops the concept of a “thirst for purity” and its many forms, including the madness of the Hutu ethnic identity displayed in Rwanda, ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, and anti-Western hatred in an Algeria fraught with massacres at the hands of radical fundamentalists—or, not so long ago, communism and Nazism.

He makes several trips to Sarajevo. Organizes, through La Règle du Jeu, Président Izetbegovic’s ‘wildcat’ visit to Paris and then a European tour for him.

Bernard-Henri Lévy takes up the call. With Gilles Hertzog, Jean-François Deniau and the young mayor of Lourdes, Philippe Doust-Blazy, BHL is the first, in May 1992, to enter the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo under siege. On his return he transmits to President Mitterrand the message of distress and appeal for help that the president of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Alija Izetbegovic, entrusted to him during the siege. It is this message and Lévy’s insistence that will convince the French president to undertake his “historic” trip to Sarajevo. With Alain Ferrari, and with the images of Thierry Ravalet, Lévy creates a first documentary entitled Un jour dans la mort de Sarajevo [A Day in the Death of Sarajevo]. Broadcast on television by France 3 on December 20, 1992, it presents, in 63 minutes, the martyrdom of this ecumenical city and the suffering of its inhabitants who heroically resist the incessant bombings.

With Le Jugement Dernier [The Last Judgement], BHL makes the transition to theatre. Presented at the Théâtre de l’Atelier with stage direction by Jean-Louis Martinelli, this play sketches a portrait of the 20th century: communism, Nazism, “Pol Potism” – all the great excesses of the century appear here, but with a dimension of humour and of sarcasm that is surprising for those familiar with Barbarie à visage humain.The publication of the fourth volume of Questions de principe (sub-titled Idées fixes; Le Livre de Poche) brings together a new series of articles, dedicated notably to post-communist Europe, the Gulf War, the Touvier affair, as well as an homage to former teachers: Roland Barthes, Louis Althusser, and Jacques Lacan. In October, in Finland, Salman Rushdie makes his first public appearance, under the aegis of BHL.

His Questions de Principe Trois [Questions of Principle III] is published in the spring, with the subtitle La suite dans les idées [Coherence of Ideas] – a new collection of texts ranging from political reporting to reflections on art and fiction, to analysis of the paintings of Frank Stella. Lévy’s admiration for Stella gives rise to Stella, les années 80 [Stella: the 1980s]. Lévy says to have found – in literature – this “combination of grace and level-headedness… only in the works of Baudelaire”.

In the initial days following the fall of the Berlin Wall, the French Secretary of State responsible for international cultural affairs assigns Bernard-Henri Lévy a mission within the countries of central and eastern Europe liberated from Soviet rule: in Budapest, Berlin, Sofia, Warsaw and Bucarest, he explores the possibility of reinforcing the French presence and examines the feasibility of a European Academy of Cultures, for which he drew inspiration from a 1937 project by Franz Werfel. BHL’s inquiry seems to inspire François Mitterrand in his January 29, 1993, address given at the Louvre, inaugurating the Académie Universelle des Cultures.

His Questions de Principe Deux [Questions of Principle, II] is published, bringing together articles and essays that previously ran in the French and international press.

In November, in association with Georges-Marc Bénamou and soon joined by Pierre Bergé, he participates in the magazine Globe, in which he publishes a monthly commentary.

He meets Joëlle Habert who is still today his assistant and trusted aide.

Eighteen years later, on the occasion of the re-release of L’Idéologie française in pocket format by Le Livre de Poche, the French press will applaud this visionary text: regional identification, suspicion of the “cosmopolitan spirit”, hatred of intellectuals – it would be necessary for time to pass, for three major trials to shake France (Klaus Barbie, Paul Touvier, and Maurice Papon), and finally, that the extreme-right political party Le Front National and its leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, take hold in the national political landscape, before the anticipatory role of this work would be recognized.

In September 1981, Bernard-Henri Lévy leaves for Afghanistan with Marek Halter and Renzo Rossellini to give three radio transmitters, purchased with funds raised in a public, European collection, to the Afghani resistance led by Commander Massoud. Thus is born Radio Free Kaboul. The “travel diary” of this journey to an Afghanistan occupied and devastated by the Soviet army is published in Le Nouvel Observateur.

Bernard-Henri Lévy travels frequently to Italy, where he participates actively among left and extreme-left groups, and in the intellectual fight against terrorism, thereby coming into contact with the psychoanalyst-activist Armando Verdiglione. Concerned with, as he puts it, “combating the adversary on his own territory”, he writes a number of texts for the alternative daily newspaper Lotta Continua, in which he underscores the fascist heritage of the extreme left’s terrorist actions. In Paris, he becomes close to Romain Gary, whom he sees regularly until the eve of his death in December 1980.

In anticipation of the legislative campaign in the Coutances (Manche) region of France, François Mitterrand chooses to place him on the list of candidates; however, for technical reasons, it will be impossible for Bernard-Henri Lévy to pursue the project to its ultimate conclusion in the elections of March 1973.

In September, under the supervision of the economist and historian Charles Betelheim (who introduces him to Louis Althusser), he declares his Master’s thesis topic, “impérialisme and colonialisme interne” [imperialism and internal colonialism].

In November, responding to André Malraux’s call to organize an international brigade in support of Bangladesh, he heads to India, then to Bangladesh itself, where he spends several months: first, as a war correspondent for the daily newspaper Combat, then as a temporary civil attaché in charge of planning for the young government headed by Mujibur Rahnan, the first president of Bangladesh.

This long visit to Bangladesh will supply the material for his first book, Bangladesh, Nationalisme dans la Révolution, published in 1973 in the prestigious series Cahiers Libres published by Les Editions Maspéro, one of the rallying points of the extreme left at the time. This work will be republished in 1985 by Le Livre de Poche, under the title Les Indes Rouges.

Under the direction of Michel Serres, he defended his undergraduate thesis titled “Formation et Déplacement des concepts scientifiques selon Georges Canguilhem” [Development and Transfer of Scientific Concepts According to Georges Canguilhem].

Parallel to this, he contributes to the daily newspaper Combat, edited by Philippe Tesson, for which he makes an extensive report on the war in Northern Ireland as well as a number of reports on rural France.

He attends the Lycée Pasteur in Neuilly, where his parents lived.

After a two-year preparatory course at the Lycée Louis le Grand in Paris, this seventh-degree blackbelt in judo enters the Ecole Normale Supérieure on the rue d’Ulm where he studies under Jacques Derrida and Louis Althusser, and where he came into contact with – though never adheres to – Maoist groups (the UJCML, and later the Gauche Prolétarienne) then in favour with his fellow Normaliens.

A long visit to Mexico during the first semester of 1969 was followed by a text entitled “Mexique, nationalisation de l’impérialisme” [Mexico: Nationalization of Imperialism], published by Les Temps Modernes. Thus, one of Bernard-Henri Lévy’s first published texts was done so under the aegis – and in the journal of – Jean-Paul Sartre.

He makes a summer 1969 trip to Israel – which he first visited two years earlier on the last day of the Six Day War, thereby breaking with the reflexive anti-Zionism common among his contemporaries.

This second trip in 1969 inspires him to write “Sionismes en Palestine” [“Zionisms in Palestine”], published in La Revue du Comité de la Gauche pour la paix négociée au Proche-Orient, headed by Clara Halter and featuring the work of such writers as Vladimir Jankélévitch, Jean-Pierre Faye, and Jean-François Revel. This text defines a position from which Lévy will never deviate: unconditional support for the existence and security of Israel, but the absolute necessity – for ethical as well as political reasons – of a sovereign Palestinian state, bordering and at peace with Israel.

He has ceaselessly devoted his talent, energy, and courage to the causes he felt to be just: from his first reports in Bangladesh for the daily newspaper Combat, founded by Albert Camus, to his investigation of Daniel Pearl’s death in Pakistan, to his several journeys to a Sarajevo surrounded by Serbian militias, and forays into the “forgotten wars” of Africa and elsewhere.

Graduate of the prestigious Ecole Normale Supérieure with a degree in philosophy, a writer, novelist, journalist, agitator of ideas, filmmaker, founder of the quarterly La Règle du Jeu, and an editorialist for Le Point, where he writes a weekly column on politics, arts and culture, Bernard-Henri Lévy (known as BHL) is on a permanent crusade.

There is, however, an overarching preoccupation throughout his work: the idea of Evil.

For BHL, the 20th century was the century of Evil: fascism, totalitarianism, terrorism, as well as fundamentalism, are the successive forms that this Evil has taken and continues to take at the beginning of this 21st century.

BHL is a philosopher who variously charms and irritates.

He is reproached as being a provocateur for the vehemence and courage with which he defends his opinions.

He is accused of being media-hungry for having always thought it best to address, via television, the widest possible audience.

One may love or hate BHL, but it is impossible to remain indifferent.

His impassioned eloquence, the lyricism of his prose, his spirited and fiery defense of the most hopeless causes, and his humanist and activist views have made him an easy target of criticism, but they have also inspired the most intense admiration in France and around the world.

Among contemporary French writers and intellectuals, he is the “beacon burning on a thousand citadels”, ever ready to become impassioned.

The definition that Sartre gave to his own work could be equally applied to Bernard-Henri Lévy: “What I sought were events that must be written about in a literary way and which, at the same time, carried philosophic meaning.”

Liliane Lazar.