Antelme was born in
Sartène,
Corse-du-Sud. He studied
law in Paris in 1936, then served in the military in 1937–1939, followed by active duty. He married
Marguerite Duras in 1939. Their child died at birth in 1942. In the same year, Duras met
Dionys Mascolo, who became her lover, leading to a
ménage à trois between the three. Under the
Vichy government, Antelme worked as an editor in the Ministry of the Interior. He joined a resistance group headed by
François Mitterrand in 1943. Antelme was arrested on 1 June 1944{{cite web|language=English After the war, Antelme worked for the
Fédération nationale des déportés et internés résistants et patriotes. He was then employed as an editor at
Gallimard from 1951 to 1981, working on the
Encyclopédie de la Pléiade. He was a member of the
French Communist Party, but left the party in 1953 upon learning of the existence of labor camps in the
Soviet Union. In September 1960, he was one of the signatories of the
Manifesto of the 121 in support of
Algerian independence amid the
Algerian War. He also participated in the protest movement of
May 1968. Paralyzed in 1983 by a stroke, he died on 26 October 1990 at the hospital of
Hôtel des Invalides in Paris. ==Works==