poet – Page 14 – Who Knew Whom

Paul Éluard

1895 (Saint-Denis, France) – 1952 (Paris)

Éluard met Breton, Soupault and Aragon while they were still aligned with Dada. He was involved in the on-stage fracas with Tzara that marked the surrealists’ break with Dada. Picasso and Ernst (with whom he engaged in two collaborations) were lifelong friends; Miró, Man Ray and Dalí (for whom his wife left him) were among his other artist friends. He and Breton corresponded with de Chirico. Poulenc set 34 of his poems to music, he wrote verses for a book of Bellmer’s ‘doll’ photos, and Magritte responded to a poem Éluard wrote about him by drawing his portrait.

André Breton

novelist, poet, cultural instigator

1896 (Tinchebray, France) – 1966 (Paris)

Apollinaire was a formative influence, as was Vaché. Breton founded ‘Littérature’ with Soupault and Aragon, who along with Éluard, Crevel, Artaud, Leiris, Péret and Desnos congregated around him in surrealism’s early days. He’d known and admired Valéry while quite young, and visited Freud in Vienna. Apollinaire introduced him to de Chirico, Picasso and others; these two plus Miró, Masson, Ernst and Tanguy were included by Breton in the first surrealist painting exhibition. He met Lévi-Strauss on a boat to Martinique (where he met Césaire). Ernst and Duchamp accompanied him to the U.S. during WWII; he met Lam in New York.

André Breton knew…

Dylan Thomas

poet, playwright

1914 (Swansea, Wales) – 1953 (New York)

Eliot dithered over Thomas’s poems, but encouraged him and sent him money. Auden, Spender and MacNeice broadcast with him, Spender also raising money for him, and MacNeice attending his funeral. Miller met him while visiting an old friend in London; Ferlinghetti met him in Paris and drank with him in San Francisco. Chaplin threw him out for arriving drunk, Thomas retaliating by urinating on a plant on his doorstep. Stravinsky wrote to him just before he died, about collaborating on a post-apocalyptic opera, and composed a piece dedicated to his memory.

Dylan Thomas knew…

Dorothy Wordsworth

diarist, poet

1771 (Cockermouth, England) – 1855 (Rydal Mount)

She lived with her brother William for much of her life; de Quincey started the rumours, still current, of a possibly incestuous relationship. She contributed greatly to the creative climate of their shared household, known through her brother’s and Coleridge’s published works. Her diaries were discovered in a barn by Beatrix Potter when she bought their old home in 1931; her written comments on Lamb, Scott (whom the Wordsworths visited outside Edinburgh), Southey and other literary friends are enlightening. The Wordsworths and Coleridge met the aged Klopstock on their way to a cold and miserable winter in Germany.

Dorothy Wordsworth knew…

Christopher Logue

poet, journalist

1926 (Portsmouth, England) – 2011 (London)

Logue, better-known in Britain than elsewhere (his translation of the Iliad is celebrated), was a socially-engaged poet with a strong suit in wry satire. Trocchi’s Paris-based magazine ‘Merlin’ published early work of Logue’s; Trocchi also saved him from suicide. Logue wrote a pornographic novel for Girodias, and hung out with Beckett and Miller. He appeared in a fim of Gilliam’s as a spaghetti-eating maniac. Wesker and he were jailed together for civil disobedience. He said that Donleavy held grudges obsessively, and had nothing but books about copyright on his bookshelves.

Christopher Logue knew…

Christian Dotremont

Christian d'Otrement

poet, artist

1922 (Tevuren, Belgium) – 1979 (Buizingem, Netherlands)

Dotremont met Magritte when he was 18, and discovered Ubac’s address and sent him a postcard. He kept company with Picasso and Éluard when he left Belgium for Paris in 1941. Magritte, Nougé and Dotremont were among those forming the Revolutionary Surrealist Group in Brussels, a forerunner of the Situationists. Jorn, Noiret, Constant, Corneille and Appel were founder-members — with Dotremont — of CoBrA, whose name was his idea. He collaborated on several works with Alechinsky and with Vandercam. The poet Stanislas d’Otremont was his father.

Christian Dotremont knew…

Charles Baudelaire

poet, critic, translator

1821 (Paris) – 1867 (Paris)

He belonged with Gautier, Nerval, Balzac and Delacroix to the Club des Hachichins, while staying more of an outsider. Manet (a close friend), Courbet and Nadar portrayed him. He wrote critical studies of his friends Hugo, Balzac, Nerval and Gautier. Delacroix inspired (and with Manet was subject of) his art criticism. He befriended and wrote about Jongkind, was on good terms with Liszt, wrote to Wagner (whom he admired), but never met Poe (whom he had translated and popularised). Banville and he quarreled over an actress, and in his last year Manet’s paintings surrounded him while friends played Wagner’s music.

Charles Baudelaire knew…

Cesare Pavese

novelist, poet

1908 (Santo Stefano Belbo, Italy) – 1950 (Turin)

Ginzburg was a fellow-pupil at a high-school in Turin with an impressive record for nurturing intellectuals and anti-fascists who contributed to post-WWII democracy in Italy. Both Levi and Calvino met Pavese through being employed at the publisher Einaudi (co-founded by Ginzburg); he befriended and helped introduce the younger Calvino to leftist politics.

Cesare Pavese knew…

Boris Vian

poet, novelist, musician

1920 (Ville d'Avray, France) – 1959 (Paris)

Camus, Sartre and Queneau met up with Vian in post-war Paris jazz clubs because of his friendships with American musicians (he preferred Sartre’s joviality to Camus’ sullenness). Davis and Ellington (a good friend) used him to liaise for them. He introduced Parker to Sartre, and collaborated with Milhaud on an opera. Prévert was a neighbour, Malle a friend, while Gréco (for whom he wrote songs, and introduced to Davis) called him her “incestuous brother”. He was a regular at Duras’ literary discussions, worked for Barclay, and formed a production company with his friend Queneau and his biographer Arnaud.

Blaise Cendrars

poet, novelist

1887 (La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland) – 1961 (Paris)

He worked as an assistant to Gance, helped Chagall find titles for his paintings, had his portrait painted by Modigliani, and strongly influenced Dos Passos, who translated his work into English. Milhaud composed for him (Léger did the sets), Braque decorated his car, and Sonia Delaunay, a lifelong friend, illustrated a celebrated piece of work. He drunk champagne with Stravinsky and Diaghilev after a woman broke a theatre seat over his head. Varèse, Desnos, Metzinger, Miller and Hemingway were also good friends. Satie, Auric and sometimes Jacob ate bouillabaisse together with him every Friday.