Malet, Léo

French author born as Léon Malet in Montpellier. Having lost his parents when he was four years old, he was raised by his paternal grandparents. He left school at an early age and started to work, among other things, in a bank and in a factory. In his spare time he sold anarchist magazines. When he was sixteen he ran off to Paris where he tried to make a living singing at a cabaret in Montmartre and mixing with anarchists. After having been arrested several times for loitering, he was sent back to Montpellier where he began to work for various magazines. He returned to Paris in 1929 and started the Cabaret du poète perdu together with Paulette Doucet. The couple married in 1940 and had a son, Jacques-Lionel.