French Journalist, Historian and Writer.  He was born at Le Vésinet in the modern département of Yvelines.  He was from an upper middle class Jewish family related to Bergson and Proust and the novelist and screenwriter Monique Lange. He studied philosophy before volunteering for the armed services in 1914. He was discharged in 1917 with a respiratory disease after having received the Croix de guerre (or, war cross), he then joined the surrealists, working with Louis Aragon, Gaston Bergery and his former schoolmate from the Lycée Carnot, Pierre Drieu La Rochelle. In 1927, Berl and La Rochelle published a short-lived periodical: Les Derniers Jours. In 1928, with Édouard Berth, Marcel Déat, Bertrand de Jouvenel and Pierre Mendès-France, taking part in the editing of the Cahiers bleus which had just launched George Valois. The same year, he met André Malraux to whom he dedicated his Mort de la pensée bourgeoise, a satire in which Emmanuel Berl called for a more committed culture and literature. During the 1930s, he entered politics on the side of the radicals.  Emmanuel would marry three times, the first two ending in him being a widower. His third and final marriage to Mireille Hartuch,  the singer, composer and film actress. After a short spell in Vichy, he turned his back on the new regime and returned to his wife Mireille in Cannes and settled, in July 1941, in Argentat. There he drafted Histoire de l’Europe (History of Europe) and was reunited with Bertrand de Jouvenal, Jean Effel and André Malraux. After World War II, he left politics to concentrate on literature and editing autobiographical works, including the notable book Sylvia. In 1967, the Académie française awarded him the Grand Prix de literature. After his death, at Paris, Patrick Modiano and Bernard Morlino did a lot to ensure his memory. Patrick published Interrogatoire, and Bernard published two posthumous books of his friend: Essais and Un spectateur engagé. (bio by: Shock)