It is well-known that Grothendieck's *Esquisse d'un programme* was submitted in 1984 as part as the author's application for the permanent position, *Directeur de Recherche* at CNRS (the main public research institution in France, employing thousands of full-time researchers.) This came
after Grothendieck had resigned his professorship at IHES and spent a
few years as a professor at the University of Montpellier. All of this is
for instance written in *Esquisse d'un programme* itself, or in *Recoltes et Semailles.* 



> 
> What I would like to know (with certainty): what happened to his application to CNRS? Did he receive a permanent position? Another kind of position? Nothing? If he got 
>  some offer, did he accept it or refuse it? If he accepted an offer, did he effectively hold it, and when, how, and why did he eventually give up the position 
>  (I assume he did, because before long he disappeared almost completely.)
> 
> 
> 


Now, Wikipedia (on the *Esquisse d'un programme* page) says something about it, namely that the application was successful and that he held the position held from 1984 to 1988.


It refers to an article in *Science News,* which, I seem to recall, did not say more. However, I have asked this of various people in France, receiving as many different answers as persons I asked.
So I would like confirmation of this point by knowledgeable people. Moreover, this Wikipedia sentence just answers part of the question: it doesn't say what kind of position
Grothendieck received, whether he effectively held it, and why and how he resigned from it.


On the other hand, this is a public event for which all or most 
participants are still alive, so it should be relatively easy to obtain a knowledgeable answer. 


I apologize that my question has absolutely no mathematical content, but there is a long sequence of well-accepted precedent questions about aspects of the lives of famous mathematicians and also about mathematical institutions.



Institutional response to "Esquisse d'un programme"
I would think this is from an authoritative [source,](http://www.ams.org/notices/200410/fea-grothendieck-part2.pdf) since apparently the author consulted with Bourguignon (chair of the hiring committee at CNRS).



> 
> When Grothendieck reapplied to the CNRS in 1984, his application was
>  once again controversial. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, now director of the
>  IHÉS, chaired the committee in charge of reviewing applications in
>  mathematics, among which was Grothendieck’s. According to Bourguignon,
>  in the handwritten letter required for the application, Grothendieck
>  listed several tasks he would not perform, such as supervising
>  research students. Because CNRS contracts obligate researchers to
>  perform some of these tasks, this letter was viewed by the CNRS
>  administration as proof of Grothendieck’s ineligibility. Bourguignon
>  said he tried to get Grothendieck to amend his application so that it
>  did not state explicitly all the tasks he refused to carry out, but
>  Grothendieck would not budge. After considerable effort on the part of
>  several people, Grothendieck was eventually put on a special kind of
>  position, called a **position asterisquée**, that was acceptable to him
>  and to the CNRS. The CNRS did not actually hire him but was in charge
>  only of paying his salary, and he retained his university
>  affiliation. So for his last few years at Montpellier before his
>  retirement in 1988, Grothendieck did not teach and spent less and less
>  time at the university.
> 
> 
> 


