French, yes, but what about library contents in other languages?

The Fanon library contains several books that are not in French. This is not to say that Frantz Fanon necessarily engaged with these foreign language works. As we can see below in the pie chart, the most popular foreign languages in the library are English, Italian, Spanish, Catalan, German, Dutch, Portuguese and Romanian. Some of this language diversity can be explained by the fact that Josie received copies of the translations of Fanon’s books, such as in Hungarian.

However, we can also see, in the library, Josie’s interest in learning and working with the English language is evident. After Frantz’s death, Josie seems to acquire books written or translated into English at a spectacular rate. As we see through the green line in the chart below, English surpasses other languages only around 1960/1961, the period when her husband died.

Indeed, this reflects Josie’s growing interest in the English language. We know, for instance, that she was a translator from English to French. See, for instance, the works Josie translated into French from English.