In 1920, at the age of seventeen, recommended by his grandfather, Herbart landed a job in an electricity company, Thomson Houston, in Paris.

André Gide took care of the publication of his first novel, Le Rôdeur (written in the summer of 1929) at Gallimard, while the couple moved to Cabris.

[12][13] When World War II broke out, Herbart helped organize a committee formed for passive defense work (digging trenches, shelters, etc.).

He participated in the creation of a weekly, with Claude Bourdet and Jacques Baumel of the magazine Terre des Hommes in which Gide, Henri Calet, Raymond Aron, Prévert, Nadeau, Jean-Pierre Giraudoux, and Henri Michaux participated, but whose publication was stopped after twenty-three numbers.

[11] From 13 December 1946 to 26 April 1947, he was sent to Algeria for a report on North Africa's Maghreb, whose first article made the front page of France-Soir in 1947 under the title S.O.S.

He moved to Roger Martin du Gard in Tertre and wrote L’Âge d’or, a novel in which he evoked the (mostly homosexual) loves of his youth.

He made several trips with his wife and wrote a book on his political career, La Ligne de force (which would be released in 1958).

He occasionally contributed to various literary reviews and published, in 1968, Souvenirs imaginaires; then a collection of short stories, Histoires confidential, in 1970.

[20] This alley is the central artery of Square Boucicaut [fr], near Le Bon Marché, in proximity of his Parisian home.