Joë Bousquet was born in 1897 in Narbonne, a small town in southwest France. Both his parents belonged to families rooted in the region. A few years after Bousquet's birth his father, who had been until then a military doctor, left the army and opened a private practice in the neighboring Carcassonne. There, Bousquet was to grow up and spend most of his life. After finishing high school Bousquet went to Paris to study at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales, the most prestigious French business school. These studies were interrupted, however, by World War I. Bousquet enlisted in the army and became an intrepid and distinguished officer, often leading assaults against the enemy. One of these assaults determined the course of his remaining life. In 1918 the twenty-one-year-old Bousquet was wounded at Vailly (Aisne). His spine was damaged badly, and he remained paraplegic and impotent. Brought back to...