He was born in Paris and attended boarding schools and Catholic seminaries in Artois and Belgium.
In 1934, he joined the Catholic daily La Croix as literature and arts critic, and he rose to be its editor-in-chief in 1940.
That same year, he co-founded the literary publishing house Editions du Seuil, where he published French authors such as Julien Green, Renaud Camus, Philippe Sollers, Didier Decoin - many of them for the first time - and foreign writers such as DM Thomas, John Irving, Alexander Zinoviev, William Boyd, Severo Sarduy, Amos Oz, Witold Gombrowicz and Heinrich Boll.
Other works of poetry included Mystere apprivoise (The Mystery Tamed, 1943), La Laisse du Temps (Time on a leash, 1977) and Corps a Coeur (Heart Body, 1982).
He was also a broadcasting pioneer, creating serious literary programmes for the radio, notably on France Culture.