André de Richaud
Encyclopedia
André de Richaud was a French
poet
and writer. After his father was killed in the First World War in 1915, his mother became a lover of a German prisoner of war, which caused him a trauma that made him later sell their house and move away. At the age of twenty he wrote an autobiographical novel Pain (whose heroine's impact on her son's life seems similar to the impact of the stepfather on the life of Baudelaire
) which greatly influenced Albert Camus
.
He was awarded the 1954 Prix Guillaume Apollinaire
.
His works include novels, poetry, plays and essays. Despite being successful (his friends included Jean Giraudoux
, André Gide
, Jean Cocteau
, Fernand Léger
, Luis Buñuel
, Jean Marais
and Léon-Paul Fargue
), he could never come to terms with the world (which is typical for a poète maudit
), and became addicted to alcohol and drugs. He died in a hospital, self-destructed, paralyzed and penniless, but in his words "thankfully surrounded by friends - children and dogs."
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and writer. After his father was killed in the First World War in 1915, his mother became a lover of a German prisoner of war, which caused him a trauma that made him later sell their house and move away. At the age of twenty he wrote an autobiographical novel Pain (whose heroine's impact on her son's life seems similar to the impact of the stepfather on the life of Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire was a French poet who produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. His most famous work, Les Fleurs du mal expresses the changing nature of beauty in modern, industrializing Paris during the nineteenth century...
) which greatly influenced Albert Camus
Albert Camus
Albert Camus was a French author, journalist, and key philosopher of the 20th century. In 1949, Camus founded the Group for International Liaisons within the Revolutionary Union Movement, which was opposed to some tendencies of the Surrealist movement of André Breton.Camus was awarded the 1957...
.
He was awarded the 1954 Prix Guillaume Apollinaire
Prix Guillaume Apollinaire
-Winners:* 2010 : Jean-Marie Barnaud for Fragments d'un corps incertain * 2009 : Jacques Ancet for L'identité obscure * 2008 : Alain Borer for Icare & I don’t...
.
His works include novels, poetry, plays and essays. Despite being successful (his friends included Jean Giraudoux
Jean Giraudoux
Hippolyte Jean Giraudoux was a French novelist, essayist, diplomat and playwright. He is considered among the most important French dramatists of the period between World War I and World War II. His work is noted for its stylistic elegance and poetic fantasy...
, André Gide
André Gide
André Paul Guillaume Gide was a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1947. Gide's career ranged from its beginnings in the symbolist movement, to the advent of anticolonialism between the two World Wars.Known for his fiction as well as his autobiographical works, Gide...
, Jean Cocteau
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...
, Fernand Léger
Fernand Léger
Joseph Fernand Henri Léger was a French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of Cubism which he gradually modified into a more figurative, populist style...
, Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel Portolés was a Spanish-born filmmaker — later a naturalized citizen of Mexico — who worked in Spain, Mexico, France and the US..-Early years:...
, Jean Marais
Jean Marais
-Biography:A native of Cherbourg, France, Marais starred in several movies directed by Jean Cocteau, for a time his lover, most famously Beauty and the Beast and Orphée ....
and Léon-Paul Fargue
Léon-Paul Fargue
Léon-Paul Fargue was a French poet and essayist.He was born in Paris, France on rue Coquilliére. As a poet he was noted for his poetry of atmosphere and detail. His work spanned numerous literary movements...
), he could never come to terms with the world (which is typical for a poète maudit
Poète maudit
A poète maudit is a poet living a life outside or against society. Abuse of drugs and alcohol, insanity, crime, violence, and in general any societal sin, often resulting in an early death are typical elements of the biography of a poète maudit....
), and became addicted to alcohol and drugs. He died in a hospital, self-destructed, paralyzed and penniless, but in his words "thankfully surrounded by friends - children and dogs."
Works
"J'ai cru tricher, et l'on m'a triché : croyant avoir deux figures, je ne'n ai plus." / "I thought that I was creating delusions, but I was deluded myself : I thought I had two personalities, and I have none."- Vie de saint Delteil, (1928)
- La Création du monde, (1930)
- La Douleur, (1930); Pain
- La Fontaine des lunatiques, (1932)
- Le Village, (1932)
- Le Château des papes, (1933)
- L'Amour fraternel, (1936)
- Le Droit d'asile, (1937)
- La Barrette rouge, (1938)
- Le Mauvais, (1945)
- La Rose de Noël, (1947)
- L'Étrange visiteur, (1956)
- Je ne suis pas mort, (1965)