Jacques Guérin: Chemist-Patron and Co-Creator of Proustian Myth

Abstract

According to Seneca, the ability to excel beyond one’s destiny in any circumstance makes one noble. One of those who succeeded without fail was Jacques Guérin, a chemist who made a major contribution to the creation and subsequent codification of a myth carefully moulded around one of the most important figures of modern culture, Marcel Proust. Although the relics of Proust’s life and oeuvre, that the trained chemist and industrialist Guérin preserved, are held in considerable esteem, Guérin’s own person has been much slower to find its way to public attention and recognition. Guérin’s chemical identity, however, has remained almost entirely neglected. This is despite the fact that using the profits from applied chemistry (the production of perfumes) Guérin was able to render a vital service to French and world culture, as a patron, as a selfless supporter of poor artists and, above all, as a co-creator of the Proust myth. This article is dedicated to filling this gap in our collective memory. Moreover, one of the key memorabilia of Marcel Proust's life – rescued and restored at his own expense by Guérin – an otter fur-lined, dark grey wool overcoat, also represents an inspiring example of the material culture of the pioneering age of polymer chemistry. This admired and exceedingly venerated coat is, in fact, decorated with Bakelite buttons, i.e., the first ever synthetic material, which mankind owes to the Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland, one of the most important figures of applied chemistry of the early twentieth century. Full text English translation is available in the on-line version.