Suarès, André 1868–1948

PERSONAL: Born 1868, in Marseilles, France; died 1948. Hobbies and other interests: Music.

CAREER: Poet, critic, and writer.

AWARDS, HONORS: Grand Prix de Literature, French Academy, 1935; Literature Prize, City of Paris, 1948.

WRITINGS:

Lettres d'un solitaire sur les maux du temps: première lettre Barrès, Ollendorff (Paris, France), 1899.

C'est la guerre, Emile-Paul Frères (Paris, France), 1915.

Italie, Italie!, Emile-Paul Frères (Paris, France), 1915.

Nous et eux, Emile-Paul Frères (Paris, France), 1915.

Occident, Emile-Paul Frères (Paris, France), 1915.

Péguy, Emile-Paul Frères (Paris, France), 1915.

Angleterre, Emile-Paul Frères (Paris, France), 1916.

Don Quijote en Francia, introduced and translated by Ricardo Baeza, Minerva (Madrid, Spain), 1916.

Les bourdons sont en fleur, Emile-Paul Frères (Paris, France), 1917.

Remarques I, Nouvelle Revue Française (Paris, France), 1917.

Debussy, Emile-Paul Frères (Paris, France), 1922, reprinted, 1949.

Cressida, Emile-Paul Frères (Paris, France), 1924.

Présences, Emile-Paul Frères (Paris, France), 1926.

Vers Venise, Emile-Paul Frères (Paris, France), 1927.

Musique et poésie, Éditions Calude Aveline (Paris, France), 1928.

Soleil de jade, poèmes du Japon, Typographie de L. Pichon (Paris, France), 1928.

Poème du temps qui meurt, illustrated by Antoine Bourdelle and J.-L. Perrichon, C. Aveline (Paris, France), 1929.

Fiorenza, Emile-Paul Frères (Paris, France), 1932.

Sienne la bien aimée, Emile-Paul Frères (Paris, France), 1932, reprinted, Francs-Bibliophiles (Paris, France), 1963.

Marsiho, B. Grasset (Paris, France), 1933.

Vues sur Napoléon, B. Grasset (Paris, France), 1933.

Trois homes: Pascal-Ibsen-Dostoievski, Gallimard (Paris, France), 1935.

Passion, illustrated by Georges Rouault, A. Vollard (Paris, France), 1939.

Vues sur l'Europe, B. Grasset (Paris, France), 1939.

Musiciens, Éditions du Pavois (Paris, France), 1945.

Pages, Éditions du Pavois (Paris, France), 1948.

Voici l'homme, A. Michel (Paris, France), 1949.

Hélène chez Archimède, Gallimard (Paris, France), 1949.

Minos et Pasiphaé, illustrated by Georges Rouault, La Table Ronde (Paris, France), 1950.

Correspondence, 1903–1938, Gallimard (Paris, France), 1951.

(With Romain Rolland) Cette me ardente … Choix de lettres de André Suarès à Romain Rolland (1887–1891), preface by Maurice Pottecher, notes by Pierre Sipriot, A. Michel (Paris, France), 1954.

Ignorées du destinataire; lettres inédites, preface by Armand Roumanet, Gallimard (Paris, France), 1955.

Voyage du condottière, Emile-Paul Frères (Paris, France), 1956.

(With Georges Rouault) Correspondance, introduction by Marcel Arland, Gallimard (Paris, France), 1960.

(With Charles Péguy) Correspondance [de] Charles Péguy [et] André Suarès, Librairie M.-J. Minard (Paris, France), 1960.

(With Antoine Bour) Correspondance [de] André Suarès et Antoine Bour, Plon (Paris, France), 1961.

(With André Gide) André Gide—André Suarès, corre-spondance, 1908–1920, Gallimard (Paris, France), 1963.

Antiennes du paraclet, preface by Yves-Alain Favre, Rougerie (Mortemart, France), 1976.

Caprices: poèmes inédits, preface by Yves-Alain Favre, Lettres Modernes (Mortemart, France), 1977.

André Suarès 2: Suarès et l'Allemagne, Minard (Paris, France), 1977.

(With A. Bourdelle) De l'amitié: letters, introduction by Michel Dufet, collected and illustrated by An-toine Bourdelle, Arted (Paris, France), 1977.

Vita nova suivie de fragments des Chroniques de Caërdal, edited by Yves-Alain Favre, Rougerie (Mortemart, France), 1977.

Elly et Thanatos, edited by Yves-Alain Favre, Roug-erie (Mortemart, France), 1978.

Ce monde doux amer, preface by Yves-Alain Favre, Temps singulier (Nantes, France), 1980.

Poétique, edited by Yves-Alain Favre, Rougerie (Mor-temart, France), 1980.

Georges Rouault—André Suarès correspondence, 1911–1939 translated and edited by Alice B. Low-Beer, introduction by Marcel Arland, Dover (New York, NY), 1982.

Pour un portrait de Goya, edited by Yves-Alain Favre, Rougerie (Mortemart, France), 1983.

Cette chère Bretagne: Yves Le Fabvre, André Suarès, correspondance 1912–1939, preface and notes by Bernard Duchatelet, Université de Brest (Brest, France), 1986.

Correspondance Jean Paulhan, André Suarès: 1925–1940, edited by Yves-Alain Favre, Gallimard (Paris, France), 1987.

Don Juan, edited by Yves-Alain Favre, Rougerie (Mezieres-sur-Issoire, France), 1987.

Ames et visages, edited by Michel Drouin, Gallimard (Paris, France), 1989–1991.

Landes et marines; suivi de En cornouailles et de pages des carnets inédits, edited by Yves-Alain Favre, C. Pirot (Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire, France), 1991.

Livre de l'Emeraude: en Bretagne, edited by Bernard Duchatelet, C. Pirot (Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire, France), 1991.

(With Jean Paulhan) Correspondance: 1940–1948, edited by Yves-Alain Favre, Rougerie (Meziere-sur-Issoire, France), 1992.

Bouclier du zodiaque: augmenté de six poèmes inédits, edited by Robert Parienté, introduction by Jean Orizet, Cherce Midi (Paris, France), 1993.

Provence, edited by Robert Parienté, illustrated by An-dré Hambourg, Edisud (La Calade, Aix-en-Provence), 1993.

(With Jacques Doucet) Le Condottiere et le magicien: André Suarès—Jacques Doucet, selected and with preface by François Chapon, Julliard (Paris, France), 1994.

Rome, edited by Robert Parienté, Calmann-Levy (Paris, France), 1998.

Remarques, Gallimard (Paris, France), 2000.

André Suarès, edited by Robert Parienté, Laffont (Paris, France), 2002.

Contributor to books, including Paul Cézanne: huit phototypies d'après Cézanne: lettres de Mm. Jacques Flach, de l'Institut, et André Suarès, Éditions George Cres & Cie (Paris, France), 1919; and L'Art et la vie: lettres inédites de Suarés, Rolland, Jammes, Unamuno, Bergson, edited by Yves-Alain Favre, Rougerie (Mortemart, France), 1984. Contributor to periodicals.

SIDELIGHTS: André Suarès was a prolific French writer of poems, plays, critical essays, and numerous letters. A collection of his poems titled Caprices: poèmes inédits features many of the author's later works, with most written following the end of World War II. G.W. Ireland, writing in the Modern Language Review, noted that many of the poems include ideas stemming from the author's voluminous reading. Ireland commented that Suarès's "eclectic personal mythology … embraces … everything from the Queen of Sheba to Moby Dick." Despite some early reservations about the author's style and abilities as a poet, Ireland went on to comment that readers will ultimately come to realize that they are in "the presence of a genuine poet." Writing in the French Review, Eric Sellin commented that the volume is "a good representative sample of his vast range and talent."

Suarès was an almost nonstop letter writer; his correspondences have been published in several volumes, such as De l'amitié: letters, which feature the correspondence between the author and artist Antoine Bourdelle. Writing in the French Review, Sidney D. Braun observed that the correspondence between the two men "is at once a testimonial to a great and true friendship and a mirror of the artistic soul that binds literature with the visual arts." In his essays and books, Suarès also wrote about numerous notables in the arts, as well as philosophers and others. "His portraits of composers, artists, writers, and philosophers," Braun remarked, "reveal profound reflections on man and life, as well as an overflowing knowledge of all culture and civilization. Recognition of his genius has been given him by such contemporaries as Rolland, Claudel, and Gide, among others." Braun, this time writing in Nineteenth-Century French Studies, noted that the author has been neglected for the most part by modern literary criticism, but the critic added that new studies of Suarès's works "reveal an increasing recognition of him as a literary master." Braun continued, "This lack of recognition may be partly due to his very frequent use of maxims, axioms, aphorisms, a style that does not appeal to the average reader, and also probably, to the fact that he is not a novelist or a practicing dramatist. Still, it is comforting to know that many of his volumes are now in the process of being reprinted."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

French Review, October, 1963, Sidney D. Braun, "An-dré Suarès and Antoine Bourdelle: Vates and Pygmalion," pp. 41-46; February, 1974, Sidney D. Braun, André Suarès and Henry Prunières: A Musical and Spiritual Affinity," pp. 518-527; February, 1979, Eric Sellin, review of Caprices: poèmes inédits and André Suarès 2: Suarès et l'Allemagne, pp. 492-493.

Modern Language Review, January, 1980, G.W. Ireland, review of Caprices, p. 204.

Nineteenth-Century French Studies, summer, 1992, Sidney D. Braun, "Psychocultural Reflections on André Suarès' Jewishness," pp. 466-477.