Henry Bidou  Henry Bidou (28 June 1873 – 14 February 1943) was a French writer, literary critic and war correspondent. Born in Givet, Bidou studied at the jesuit college. He later joined the Institut catholique de Paris (ICP) and continued his studies until he obtained two doctoral theses on Siberia and then studied law, before becoming Professor of history, geography and literature at the Lycée privé Sainte-Geneviève, then at the ICP and the Faculty of Letters. Bidou destined himself for a military career. He partially renounced it after a horse accident in his youth that led to the amputation of one of his legs. Since he couldn't perform his military service, he became a war correspondent and military columnist. He had an eclectic professional career in a wide variety of professions: geographer, historian, journalist, lecturer, literary critic, musicographer, painter and poet. He took advantage of his missions abroad to satisfy his passion for travel, facilitated by his mastery of several foreign languages. Polyglot, he spoke French, English, German, Spanish, Italian and Russian. An amateur painter, Bidou worked with Edmond Aman-Jean, Raphaël Collin and Jacques-Émile Blanche and exhibited at the Élysée gallery. He was a member of the "Société nationale de géographie" and the . It was his activity as a war correspondent that led him to Vichy in 1940 by the government of Marshal Pétain. It is in this city that he died in 1943. Bidou made numerous trips to Russia as part of the writing of his theses on Siberia, then around the world for his other activities. As a journalist or for his leisure time, he travelled through Poland, Uruguay, Japan, Cambodia, Indochina, the Rhineland, Italy, where he met Benito Mussolini, as well as Scandinavia and the Poles. He followed military operations as a war correspondent in Syria, Lebanon and Morocco during the 1920s. He drew several stories from his travels, such as "Le Nid de cygnes" after discovering the Nordic countries. Bidou entered the "Journal des débats" in 1899, where he worked until 1929. As an editor, he wrote various columns "Au jour le jour", "La semaine dramatique", and military chronicles during the war, under the patronyme Colonel X. He served as war correspondent for the newspaper from 1915 to 1923.