poet – Page 10 – Who Knew Whom

Nicolas Boileau

Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux

1636 (Paris) – 1711 (Paris)

Molière, La Fontaine (both of whom were older), Racine and Furétaire were firm friends who met regularly together with Boileau to discuss literary matters: Racine described one of Boileau’s houses as “a hostelry” because of his numerous visitors. Both La Fontaine and Racine were particularly warm friends of Boileau’s, and when Racine died he was deeply affected. Boileau had a famous literary argument with Perrault, though eventually they were reconciled.

Nicolas Boileau knew…

Max Jacob

poet, painter, critic

1876 (Quimper, France) – 1944 (Drancy)

Jacob lodged at the famous Bâteau-Lavoir, along with Picasso, Apollinaire, Cocteau, van Dongen and Salmon. He and Picasso time-shared a bed and a hat, one working by night, the other by day. Modigliani, another friend, painted his portrait. Gris, Braque, Picasso and Jacob spent the summer of 1913 together; he had met both Braque and de Chirico through Apollinaire. Poulenc, another friend, set some of his words to music. He corresponded intensely with Jabès and with Leiris, illustrated Hugnet’s poems, was at Apollinaire’s deathbed, and met the 17-year-old Dubuffet (Jacob was his favourite poet) when he came to Paris to study.

Marcel Duhamel

poet, editorial director, actor

1900 – 1966

Duhamel rented a house in Montparnasse, so that he, his friend Jacques Prévert (met on military service in Istanbul, who later wrote screenplays for him) and Tanguy could share it and “avoid misery.” Becoming one of the main bases of the surrealist movement, Queneau, fresh from military service, and Pérét also stayed there. In the 1950’s Duhamel persuaded Gallimard to publish the so-called Série noire, crime-writing, mostly American and in translation; he met Hemingway, Faulkner, Steinbeck and Caldwell through his publishing activities, and persuaded the hard-up Himes, whose work he’d already translated, to write crime fiction for him. (There is little online about Duhamel.)

French Wikipedia's account

Marcel Duhamel knew…

Louis Aragon

poet, novelist

1897 (Neuilly, France) – 1982 (Paris)

Aragon founded the surrealist review ‘Littérature’ with Breton, whom he’d met studying medicine; Soupault. Pérét, Picabia, Tzara and Éluard were all fellow-members of Paris surrealism/dada circles. Triolet, whom he married, was a strong influence on his writings; Ehrenburg was a friend of both. He demanded Picasso draw a frontispiece for his first book of poems. Meeting Matisse during WWII, he started a book on him, only completed in 1970. Richter met him rarely, but felt in touch through Aragon’s writings. Sartre suggested the faithful communist visit Cuba, while Lefebvre complained about his lack of support.

Lorenzo da Ponte

poet, librettist

1749 (Ceneda, now Vittorio Veneto, Italy) – 1838 (New York)

Da Ponte was recommended by Metastasio for his position with the Italian Opera in Vienna. Mozart and he collaborated on three operas in four years, supreme examples of the art; they communicated by shouting from house to house when living in the same Prague street. Da Ponte also worked as librettist for Martin y Soler, Salieri and Paisiello. Casanova advised him on fleeing Vienna to go to London; Longfellow, Irving and Cooper were all acquaintances after he fled London for New York, Moore’s father getting him a professorship in Italian. Morse, perhaps introduced by Cooper, painted the old man’s portrait.

Lorenzo da Ponte knew…

Leonard Cohen

composer, musician, poet, novelist

1934 (Montreal) – 2016 (Los Angeles)

Trocchi, on the run from New York, gave Cohen an almost-lethal dose of opium. Spector, who’d been producing an album of his music, locked him out of recording sessions and threatened him at gun-point. Dylan and he spent an afternoon in a Paris café discussing music, comparing notes; Cohen said it could take him 15 years to write a song, Dylan riposting that it took him 15 minutes.

Leonard Cohen knew…

James Leigh Hunt

essayist, journalist, poet

1784 (Southgate, England) – 1859 (London)

Hunt and Coleridge went to the same school. Lamb (a fellow stutterer) was among his London literary/journalistic circle, as were Shelley, Byron, Procter and Hazlitt, who contributed to his radical journal ‘Yellow Dwarf.’ Byron visited him in gaol after he lampooned the Prince Regent. He kept a bed made up for Keats in his library, introduced Shelley to him, and fell out with Haydon over a loan to Keats. Shelley and Byron got him to join them in Italy, but Shelley drowned and Keats soon went on to Greece. He later championed his friends Thackeray and Tennyson, and kept a piece of Shelley’s jawbone on his desk.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

poet, publisher, bookseller

1919 (New York) – 2021 (San Francisco)

Rexroth met him whilst he was studying at the Sorbonne, and persuaded him to go to San Francisco. His bookshop ‘City Lights’ became an institution – he published ‘Howl’ and other work of Ginsberg’s, Corso (who broke in to raid the cashbox), Levertov, di Prima, Rexroth, Patchen, Kerouac (who fictionalised him in ‘Big Sur’), O’Hara (whose pockets Ferlinghetti searched for some of the poems), and others. He met Thomas (as well as Trocchi) in Paris and drank with him in San Francisco. He and Coppola hosted a pasta-and-meatballs feast for their San Francisco neighbourhood; the city named a street after him.

Kenneth Patchen

poet

1911 (Niles, Ohio) – 1972 (Palo Alto, Calif.)

Miller described his first impression of Patchen as “a sort of sincere assassin” — they became close friends. Ferlinghetti and Rexroth were poet-friends amid the San Francisco bohemian scene. He joined Mingus in a poetry/jazz collaboration, and Cage on a radio play (‘The City Wears A Slouch Hat’). Cummings, a neighbour in Greenwich Village, became a lasting friend despite Patchen’s initial awe of him, and was one of many eminent poets who set up a fund to pay for his spinal surgery costs. Nin, who saw early drafts of his work, called him “a man who reads newspapers and has nightmares.”

Kenneth Patchen knew…

Kenneth Koch

poet, playwright

1925 (Cincinatti, Ohio) – 2002 (New York)

Koch met Ashbery at university, O’Hara following them to New York. De Kooning, Dine, Katz, Rivers, Saint Phalle, Porter and Grooms were among the artists and fellow-poets he mixed with. Mathews, Schuyler and Ashbery were his co-editors and founders of Locus Solus magazine. Padgett, taught by him, became a professional colleague, and with his close friend Brainard became another presence in New York circles. Koch challenged Ponge on his perceptions of the city’s appearance, deciding by his response that he was a genius. Ginsberg did his best to outdo Koch in rhyming.