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Pierre Reverdy (13 September 1889 - 17 June 1960) was a French
French people

French people can refer to:* The legal residents and citizens of France, regardless of ancestry. For a legal discussion, see French nationality law....
 poet associated with surrealism
Surrealism

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early-1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
 and cubism
Cubism

Cubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music and literature....
.

Pierre Reverdy was born in Narbonne
Narbonne

Narbonne is a commune in France in southern France in the Languedoc-Roussillon r?gion in France. It lies from Paris in the Aude d?partement in France, of which it is a sous-pr?fecture....
 and grew up near the Montagne Noire
Montagne Noire

The Montagne Noire is a mountain range in southwestern France. It is located at the southwestern end of the Massif Central. It is located in the border area of the Tarn, France, H?rault and Aude departments....
 in his father's house. Reverdy came from a family of sculptors. His father taught him to read and write. He studied at Toulouse
Toulouse

Toulouse is a commune of France in southwest France on the banks of the Garonne, half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea....
 and Narbonne.

Reverdy arrived in Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
 in October 1910. It was there, at the famous Bateau-Lavoir in Montmartre
Montmartre

Montmartre is a hill which is 130 metres high, giving its name to the surrounding district, in the north of Paris in the 18eme arrondissement, Paris, a part of the Rive Droite....
 that he met Guillaume Apollinaire
Guillaume Apollinaire

Wilhelm Albert Wlodzimierz Apolinary de Waz-Kostrowicki, known as Guillaume Apollinaire was a France poet, writer, and art critic born in Italy to a Polish mother....
, Max Jacob
Max Jacob

Max Jacob was a French poet, Painting, writer, and critic....
, Louis Aragon
Louis Aragon

Louis Aragon in French) , French poet and novelist, a long-time political supporter of the French Communist Party and a member of the Acad?mie Goncourt....
, André Breton
André Breton

Andr? Breton was a French writer, poet, and surrealist theorist, and is best known as the main founder of surrealism. His writings include the Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as pure psychic automatism....
, Philippe Soupault
Philippe Soupault

Philippe Soupault was a French writer and poet, novelist, critic, and political activist. He took an active role in the Dadaist movement and later founded the Surrealist movement with Andr? Breton....
 and Tristan Tzara
Tristan Tzara

Tristan Tzara was a Romanian and France avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, composer and film director, he was known best for being one of the founders and central figures of the anti-establishment Dada movement....
.

For sixteen years, Reverdy lived for his writing.






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Encyclopedia


Pierre Reverdy (13 September 1889 - 17 June 1960) was a French
French people

French people can refer to:* The legal residents and citizens of France, regardless of ancestry. For a legal discussion, see French nationality law....
 poet associated with surrealism
Surrealism

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early-1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
 and cubism
Cubism

Cubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music and literature....
.

Pierre Reverdy was born in Narbonne
Narbonne

Narbonne is a commune in France in southern France in the Languedoc-Roussillon r?gion in France. It lies from Paris in the Aude d?partement in France, of which it is a sous-pr?fecture....
 and grew up near the Montagne Noire
Montagne Noire

The Montagne Noire is a mountain range in southwestern France. It is located at the southwestern end of the Massif Central. It is located in the border area of the Tarn, France, H?rault and Aude departments....
 in his father's house. Reverdy came from a family of sculptors. His father taught him to read and write. He studied at Toulouse
Toulouse

Toulouse is a commune of France in southwest France on the banks of the Garonne, half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea....
 and Narbonne.

Reverdy arrived in Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
 in October 1910. It was there, at the famous Bateau-Lavoir in Montmartre
Montmartre

Montmartre is a hill which is 130 metres high, giving its name to the surrounding district, in the north of Paris in the 18eme arrondissement, Paris, a part of the Rive Droite....
 that he met Guillaume Apollinaire
Guillaume Apollinaire

Wilhelm Albert Wlodzimierz Apolinary de Waz-Kostrowicki, known as Guillaume Apollinaire was a France poet, writer, and art critic born in Italy to a Polish mother....
, Max Jacob
Max Jacob

Max Jacob was a French poet, Painting, writer, and critic....
, Louis Aragon
Louis Aragon

Louis Aragon in French) , French poet and novelist, a long-time political supporter of the French Communist Party and a member of the Acad?mie Goncourt....
, André Breton
André Breton

Andr? Breton was a French writer, poet, and surrealist theorist, and is best known as the main founder of surrealism. His writings include the Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as pure psychic automatism....
, Philippe Soupault
Philippe Soupault

Philippe Soupault was a French writer and poet, novelist, critic, and political activist. He took an active role in the Dadaist movement and later founded the Surrealist movement with Andr? Breton....
 and Tristan Tzara
Tristan Tzara

Tristan Tzara was a Romanian and France avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, composer and film director, he was known best for being one of the founders and central figures of the anti-establishment Dada movement....
.

For sixteen years, Reverdy lived for his writing. His companions were Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso

Pablo Diego Jos? Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Mar?a de los Remedios Cipriano de la Sant?sima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso was a Spanish people Painting, drawing, and Sculpture....
, Georges Braque
Georges Braque

Georges Braque was a major 20th century French Painting and sculpture who, along with Pablo Picasso, developed the art movement known as cubism....
, Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse was a France artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid, brilliant and original draftsmanship. As a drawing, printmaking, and Sculpture, but principally as a Painting, Matisse is one of the best-known artists of the 20th century....
 and many others. These were the years in which surrealism
Surrealism

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early-1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
 took flight and Reverdy partly inspired it. In the first Surrealist Manifesto, André Breton hailed Reverdy as "the greatest poet of the time," and Louis Aragon said that for Breton, Soupault, Éluard and himself, Reverdy was "our immediate elder, the exemplary poet."

In 1917, together with Max Jacob and Guillaume Apollinaire, Reverdy founded the influential journal Nord-Sud ("North-South") which contained many Dada
Dada

Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Z?rich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature?poetry, art manifestoes, aesthetics?theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a rejection of the prevailing standards in art...
ist and then surrealist contributions. It continued until 1918.

Reclusive by nature, Reverdy began to distance himself from these circles, and in 1926, at the age of 37, he left Paris, converted to Catholicism
Catholicism

Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its Theology and doctrines, its Catholic liturgy, Ethics, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
 and went to live in Solesmes
Solesmes

Solesmes is a small town and communes of France of the Sarthe departments of France, in France, located near Sabl?.The commune is almost entirely agricultural, but is especially noted as the site of the Rule of St Benedict St....
, home of the great St. Peter's Abbey. He stayed there until his death in 1960. During this time he wrote several collections including Sources du vent, Ferraille and Le Chant des morts.

Works

  • 1915 Poèmes en prose (Paris, Imprimerie Birault).
  • 1916 La lucarne ovale (Birault).
  • 1916 Quelques poèmes (Birault).
  • 1917 Le voleur de Talan, roman (Avignon, Imprimerie Rullière).
  • 1918 Les ardoises du toit, illustrated by Georges Braque
    Georges Braque

    Georges Braque was a major 20th century French Painting and sculpture who, along with Pablo Picasso, developed the art movement known as cubism....
     (Birault).
  • 1918 Les jockeys camouflés et période hors-texte, (Imprimerie F. Bernouard).
  • 1919 La guitare endormie, (Imprimerie Birault).
  • 1919 Self defence. Critique-Esthétique. (Birault).
  • 1921 Étoiles peintes, (Paris, Sagittaire).
  • 1921 Cœur de chêne, (Éditions de la Galerie Simon).
  • 1922 Cravates de chanvre, (Éditions Nord-Sud).
  • 1924 Pablo Picasso et son œuvre, in Pablo Picasso(Gallimard).
  • 1924 Les épaves du ciel (Gallimard).
  • 1925 Écumes de la mer, (Gallimard).
  • 1925 Grande nature (Paris, Les Cahiers libres).
  • 1926 La peau de l'homme, (Gallimard).
  • 1927 Le gant de crin (Plon).
  • 1928 La balle au bond, (Marseille, Les Cahiers du Sud).
  • 1929 Sources du vent, (Maurice Sachs éditeur).
  • 1929 Flaques de verre (Gallimard).
  • 1930 Pierres blanches, (Carcassonne, Éditions d'art Jordy).
  • 1930 Risques et périls, contes 1915-1928 (Gallimard).
  • 1937 Ferraille (Brussels).
  • 1937 Preface for Déluges by Georges Herment (José Corti).
  • 1940 Plein verre (Nice).
  • 1945 Plupart du temps, poèmes 1915-1922, which collects Poèmes en prose, Quelques poèmes, La lucarne ovale, Les ardoises du toit, Les jockeys camouflés, La guitare endormie, Étoiles peintes, Cœur de chêne et Cravates de chanvre (Gallimard, reedited in 1969 in the « Poésie » series).
  • 1945 Preface for Souspente by Antoine Tudal (Paris, Éditions R.J. Godet).
  • 1946 Visages, (Paris, Éditions du Chêne).
  • 1948 Le chant des morts, (Tériade éditeur).
  • 1948 Le livre de mon bord, notes 1930-1936 (Mercure de France).
  • 1949 Tombeau vivant, Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, in Tombeau de Jean-Sébastien Galanis (Paris, imprimé par Daragnès).
  • 1949 Main d'œuvre, poèmes 1913-1949, which collects: Grande nature, La balle au bond, Sources du vent, Pierres blanches, Ferraille, Plein verre and Le chant des morts and adds Cale sèche and Bois vert, (Mercure de France).
  • 1950 Une aventure méthodique, (Paris, Mourlot
    Mourlot

    The Mourlot family has been closely associated with the arts since 1852. The family ran Mourlot Studios, also known as Imprimerie Mourlot, Ateliers Mourlot and Mourlot Freres....
    ).
  • 1953 Cercle doré, (Mourlot
    Mourlot

    The Mourlot family has been closely associated with the arts since 1852. The family ran Mourlot Studios, also known as Imprimerie Mourlot, Ateliers Mourlot and Mourlot Freres....
    ).
  • 1955 Au soleil du plafond, (Tériade éditeur).
  • 1956 En vrac (Monaco, Éditions du Rocher).
  • 1959 La liberté des mers, (Éditions Maeght).
  • 1962 À René Char, (Alès, P. A. Benoît, poème épistolaire tiré à 4 ex.)
  • 1966 Sable mouvant, (Paris, L. Broder éditeur).


Praise


A glass of papaya juice
and back to work. My heart is in my
pocket, it is Poems by Pierre Reverdy.
--Frank O'Hara, "A Step Away From Them"


"Reverdy's strange landscapes, which combine an intense inwardness with a proliferation of sensual data, bear in them the signs of a continual search for an impossible totality. Almost mystical in their effect, his poems are nevertheless anchored in the minutiae of the everyday world; in their quiet, at times monotone music, the poet seems to evaporate, to vanish into the haunted country he has created. The result is at once beautiful and disquieting as if Reverdy had emptied the space of the poem in order to let the reader inhabit it" --Paul Auster


Translations in English


English translations of Reverdy's work have appeared in a smattering of volumes over the years, most of which are now out of print but still available used. Beginning in the early sixties, several writers have produced translations of Reveredy's work, notably Kenneth Rexroth
Kenneth Rexroth

Kenneth Rexroth was an American poet, translator and critical essayist. He was among the first poets in the United States to explore traditional Japanese poetic forms such as haiku....
, John Ashbery
John Ashbery

John Ashbery is an American poet. He has won nearly every major American award for poetry and is recognized as one of America's most important, though still controversial, poets....
, Mary Ann Caws
Mary Ann Caws

Mary Ann Caws is an American author, art historian and literary critic.She is currently a Distinguished Professor of English, French and Comparative Literature at the Graduate School of the City University of New York....
, Patricia Ann Terry and, more recently, Ron Padgett
Ron Padgett

'Ron Padgett' is an American poet, essayist, fiction writer, translator, and a member of the New York School. His books include: Great Balls of Fire, The Adventures of Mr....
.

  • Pierre Reverdy: Selected Poems - translated by Kenneth Rexroth
    Kenneth Rexroth

    Kenneth Rexroth was an American poet, translator and critical essayist. He was among the first poets in the United States to explore traditional Japanese poetic forms such as haiku....
     (New Directions, 1969)
  • Roof Slates and Other Poems of Pierre Reverdy - translated by Caws
    Mary Ann Caws

    Mary Ann Caws is an American author, art historian and literary critic.She is currently a Distinguished Professor of English, French and Comparative Literature at the Graduate School of the City University of New York....
     & Terry (Northeastern Univ. Press, 1981)
  • Selected Poems by Pierre Reverdy - edited by Timothy Bent and Germaine Brée (Wake Forest Univ. Press / Bloodaxe (UK), 1991)
  • Prose Poems - translated by Ron Padgett
    Ron Padgett

    'Ron Padgett' is an American poet, essayist, fiction writer, translator, and a member of the New York School. His books include: Great Balls of Fire, The Adventures of Mr....
     (Black Square Editions, 2007)
  • Haunted House (long prose poem) - translated by John Ashbery
    John Ashbery

    John Ashbery is an American poet. He has won nearly every major American award for poetry and is recognized as one of America's most important, though still controversial, poets....
     (Black Square Editions, 2007)


External links

  • - essay by Kenneth Rexroth (first published as the Introduction to Selected Poems)
  • - eight poems online at Milk Magazine
  • - published in Jubilat 3
  • (June, 2007)
  • at FudoMouth.net - translated by Kenneth Rexroth (from Selected Poems)