Full name Paul Deman Discipline Road | Name Paul Deman Role Philosopher | |
![]() | ||
Born 25 April 1889Rekkem, West Flanders, Belgium ( 1889-04-25 ) Died December 21, 1983, New Haven, Connecticut, United States Education Harvard University (1952–1960) Awards Guggenheim Fellowship for Humanities, US & Canada Books Blindness and insight, Allegories of reading, The Resistance to Theory, Aesthetic ideology, The rhetoric of romanticism Similar People Jacques Derrida, J Hillis Miller, Jonathan Culler, Maurice Blanchot, Jean‑Jacques Rousseau |
Paul Deman (25 April 1889 in Rekkem, West Flanders, Belgium – 31 July 1961 in Outrijve, Belgium) was a Belgian professional road bicycle racer for 15 years from 1909–1924, and a carpet maker by trade.

He won the first Tour of Flanders race in 1913 at the age of 25, defeating a field of 37 riders over a 330 km course that ended with 4 laps of the wooden track around a small pond at Mariakerke, the suburb of Ghent. He won the gruelling 592 km Bordeaux–Paris in 1914. His career almost ended with the first world war. He joined Belgium's espionage service and smuggled documents by bike into the neutral Netherlands. After many trips he was arrested by the Germans and jailed in Leuven ready to be shot. The Armistice saved him. He started racing again and won Paris–Roubaix in 1920 and Paris–Tours in 1923.


