The language is the raw material of the public writer and the writing is the added-value which it imposes on this matter. It writes for the account of private individuals of the administrative documents, the personal mails, the speeches, the announcements, etc For that it is of course necessary to control the syntax, grammatical rules and to have a wide vocabulary. The public writer is a social actor who allows the individuals to answer their obligations in a company where the writing is omnipresent.

The role of the public writer

From time immemorial, the object of the trade of public writer was to place itself like the hyphen between the individuals and the administrative or social needs.

Today, this profession still exists since it allows to render a service and to answer an individual request so much so that its role often approaches that of social actor. If its formation or its professional capacities enables him to stress this shutter of this activity, it does not replace therefore the services of the social welfare. It is placed in periphery of these structures, while allowing the people who do not control the writing to have access as well to their social rights as civil.

If the correspondence is one of the principal activities of the public writer, it is not only. In addition to the epistolary writings, the control of the various types of writings gives to the professional a pallet tools which makes it general-purpose and opens various possibilities to him of exerting. Covering letter, speech of marriage, biography, tale, contained Internet, private mail, etc , with him to develop its know-how to be recognized like a sculptor of the language. Moreover, if the feather became an antiquated symbol of this profession, the author by procuration must remain open to the technological changes and must adapt to his time by adopting the tools of modernity.

The public writer in the History

Scribes of the Egypt of the Antiquity to the clerks of the the Middle Ages, the requirements as a man for writing are made feel with the rise of the commercial exchanges, initially, then with the organization of the administrative structures then.

In the beginning, if the writing makes it possible to draw up lists and to hold of the accounts, the scribe can be regarded as the first form of the trade of public writer. During centuries which follow, the use of the writing is partly reserved for the political powers and religious. On the continent of Europe, the monks are among the rare ones to be able to primarily write and read Latin texts.

Of the end of 12th S. at the beginning of 13th S. , the rise of the cities is accompanied by an evolution by the company with the appearance of the middle-class - those which live the borough - and an enrichment thanks to the trade. But the population remains little well-read woman and the need for a third person to write, read, index the commercial acts is an increasingly strong need. Already, at that time, the trade of public writer is an answer to a request for service.

With the organization of the commercial exchanges, the multiplication of the trades, the development of the royal and municipal administration, the public writer is that which writes the agreements, the contracts and the letters which do not require the intervention of a lawyer whose services are much more expensive.

With 13th S. as during the centuries according to, the number of public writers varies according to the political wars and events which weigh directly on the economic activities.

In 1280 , sixty public writers are listed in Paris. (cf H.Spitz, page 60)

With the development of the profession with 14th S. , among the public writers most famous, Nicolas Flamel (1330? - 1418) had installed its cabinet close to the church Saint-Jacques-of-the-Butchery in Paris.

With the Rebirth, certain public writers of the 16th century have a good situation. Especially those which knew to develop editorial qualities and a control of the language. Some specialize and extend their field of competence to the legal documents in addition to the administrative and commercial texts. Contrary, others less skilful have problems to live (cf caricatures of Daumier 1808-1879).

17th S. is one period prosperous during which the public writer meets often easy customers which ask for the drafting of family biographies to him. For the least fortunate and in the small communes where there is not, the men of the church often act as writers.

But the Revolution and the period of social disturbance which accompanies it will mark an almost fatal crushing argument to the profession with the disappearance of many cabinets of public writers.

Then, the teachers very often replace the ecclesiastics to fulfill the role of writer in the most modest communes.

With 19th S. , the organization of the Napoleonean administration gives again with the profession a salutary whiplash by again causing a request on behalf of the citizens of all the social classes, as well of the craftsman as of the military warrant officer.

When the obligatory school decreased the number of illiterate with the development, in 1882, of the free and laic instruction for all the children from 7 to 12 years per Jules Ferry, the profession could again have disappeared fault from need.

Indeed, starting from 20th S. , the population is informed more and more and it does not need more intermediary for reading and writing the simplest texts of the everyday life. The call to a specialist is not done any more but for the drafting of official letters or contractual importance.

In spite of a drowsiness of this profession, the year 1980 sees the birth of association Académie of the public writers of France (AEPF) and it is at the beginning of the 21e century that the professional license of public writer is created at the university of the Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris III.

The creation of this national diploma gives a legitimate recognition to a profession which does not have a precise statute in the nomenclature of the trades of the ANPE and which however answers a social need.

Today, the lack of control of the language and the orthography, the editorial techniques and the value of the writing give a dash to the practice of this trade. In particular by an increase in the delegation of the act to write by a person recognized as graduate public writer.

The public writer in the literature

• Balzac :
• the Peasants (1844)
• the Cousin White beet (1847)
• Anatole France:
• Small Pierre (1918) chap.22
• Pierre Noziére (1899)
• Tahar Ben Jelloun
• the public Writer (1983) ISBN 978-2020064569
• Hubert de Maximy
• Shade of the devil (1999) ISBN 978-2226109002

References