French journalist, editor and historian Georgette Elgey, who was "best known for her six-volume history of France in the years after World War II, a project that took her nearly a half-century to complete," died on October 8, the New York Times reported. She was 90. In a statement confirming her death, President Emmanuel Macron of France called Elgey "one of the greatest experts of the Fourth Republic."
Although she began her career as a journalist, Elgey had "found more fulfillment in researching and writing about France's Fourth Republic.... She embarked on the project in the early 1960s and labored on it into the 21st century, delving deep into archives and drawing from oral testimonies. The first volume appeared in 1965, the final one in 2012," the Times wrote. After publishing the sixth volume, Elgey revisited her memoir, which was released in 2017 as Toutes Fenêtres Ouvertes (All Windows Open).
The first two volumes of Histoire de la IVe République--the second was published in 1968--were highly acclaimed, leading her to extend the project. Over the decades that she worked on the books, she was also a senior editor for the French publishing house Fayard in the 1970s and an adviser and the head of archives for François Mitterand after he was elected president of France in 1981. From 2007 to 2016 she was the president of the Conseil Supérieur des Archives, an advisory body tied to the culture ministry. She earned the highest rank of France's most prestigious award, the Legion of Honor, in 2013.