Max Jacob was born in 1876 in Quimper, Brittany, France to a Jewish family. He studied law at the Colonial School in Paris for college, but left to focus on his artistic career. He met Pablo Picasso in 1901 when Picasso moved to Paris, and they became close friends. Jacob taught Picasso French and introduced him to people in the art community, and Picasso depicted Jacob in his painting "Three Musicians." They also lived together for some time. In 1909 Jacob claimed to have a vision of Jesus Christ, and converted to Catholocism.
Jacob was most known for his poetry collection entitled "Le Cornet a des", which was published in 1917, as well as the novel "Saint Matorel" which he collaborated on with Picasso. He also published a number of other works, including the book "La defense de Tartuffe" which discussed his religious ideas. He was also known also as a painter.
In 1921 Jacob moved to the Benedictine commune Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire and lived there for seven years. He returned again in 1936 and resided there until 1944 when he was detained by the occupying Nazi regime. Multiple members of his family, including his sister, had already been taken, and some sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Jacob was sent to the Drancy internment camp, where he became afflicted with pneumonia. Jacob was going to be transported to Aushwitz, but he died from his illness at Drancy a month after he arrived.
Marcel Jouhandeau, Jacob's primary correspondent in this collection, was a French writer born in 1888. He was a professor at Saint John de Passy from 1912 until 1949, and was also an author. He published over 100 works in his lifetime, primarily about himself, his relationship with his wife Elisabeth Toulemon (another correspondent in this collection), his religiosity (Jouhandeau was a devout Catholic), and his homosexuality. In 1938 Jouhandeau published four short antisemitic works in a book called "The Jewish Peril". Jouhandeau died at the age of 90 in 1979.
