Between 1946 and 1956, Chris Marker was a regular contributor for Esprit. In this time he wrote over seventy articles ranging from poetry, short stories, political and cultural essays, to book and film reviews. Whereby most of his writings where short texts in Esprit’s celebrated column Journal à plusieurs voix.
Marker’s first known and often overlooked text in Esprit, Les vivants et les morts, is a poetic reflection on post-war Paris, published in the May issue of 1946, under the pseudonym Chris Mayor, a name Marker used to sign his first writings for Esprit.
Till the end of time, an apocalyptic short story, anticipating Marker’s most famous film La Jetée, appeared one year later, signed as Chris Marker.