Webster was a neighbour of the Morse family in the Boston region: Morse painted the lexicographer’s portrait (did they also discuss ways words might be transcribed?). Franklin and Webster had a lengthy correspondence about rationalised spelling, a subject close to each man’s heart. The poet Trumbull feared Webster would “dine upon dissertations, and go to bed supperless.”
Profession: writer
Nicolas-Antoine Boulanger
The interesting but largely obscure Boulanger was a regular member of d’Holbach’s salon. He wrote articles for Diderot and d’Alembert’s Encyclopédie; Diderot and d’Holbach published his works posthumously. His letters to Helvetius (a friend), either initialled or signed pseudonymously, were long thought to be from a better-known associate, Voltaire for example attributing them to Diderot.
Nicolas-Antoine Boulanger knew…
Michèle Bernstein
Debord was married to her: the two were founders of the Situationist International. Wolman collaborated on a brief text and on a letter to the (London) Times. She liked Jorn, and described him as the best of painters. Lefebvre was a close friend for about five years, and explained how she made money by providing racing magazines with horoscopes for horses.
Michèle Bernstein knew…
- Henri Lefebvre
- Guy Debord
- Asger Jorn
- Gil J. Wolman
- Raoul Vaneigem
Michel Leiris
Leiris met Ravel and Satie at a cousin’s, Metzinger at school. Apollinaire, Duchamp, Picabia and he all helped at a production of his family friend Roussel’s ‘Impressions of Africa.’ Picasso, Masson and Jacob were among his circle of friends in Paris. Bataille became close after Leiris distanced himself from Breton; they founded the Collège de Sociologie with Caillois. Queneau and he had to be repatriated from Spain. Duras was a neighbour, Griaule led an ethnographic expedition. He founded one magazine with Diop and Césaire, and another with Sartre. An evening with Miller, Penrose and Merleau-Ponty ended with his attempted suicide.
Michel Leiris knew…
- Wilfredo Lam
- Simone de Beauvoir
- Roger Caillois
- René Char
- Raymond Roussel
- Raymond Queneau
- Pierre Naville
- Pierre Klossowski
- Pablo Picasso
- Max Jacob
- Maurice Ravel
- Maurice Merleau-Ponty
- Maurice Blanchot
- Marguerite Duras
- Marcel Mauss
- Marcel Griaule
- Lee Miller
- Juan Gris
- Joan Miró
- Jean-Paul Sartre
- Jean Metzinger
- Jacques Prévert
- Harry Mathews
- Georges Limbour
- Georges Bataille
- Francis Ponge
- Francis Bacon
- Erik Satie
- Edmond Jabès
- André Masson
- Aimé Césaire
- André Breton
- Alioune Diop
- Alberto Giacometti
Maurice Lemaître
Lemaître was Isou’s main lieutenant in the Lettrist movement. He contacted Céline on the eve of his trial for wartime collaboration.
Maurice Lemaître knew…
Mary Wollstonecraft
Wollstonecraft, Godwin, Blake, Fuseli, and Price were among the dissenter group centred around the publisher Johnson, who commissioned translations from her. Blake illustrated a children’s book she wrote. Fuseli and Wollstonecraft planned a trip together to Paris to observe the French Revolution, until Fuseli’s wife put an end to the idea. Wollstonecraft and her husband Godwin were distinctly unimpressed with each other when they met at a supper Johnson held for Paine; she died ten days after their daughter Mary (later Shelley) was born. Godwin later published her posthumous works.
Mary Lamb
Lamb’s younger brother Charles was her literary collaborator as well as her guardian after she stabbed her mother to death with a kitchen knife in a fit of insanity. Of the literary circle she and her brother shared in and often hosted, Coleridge was a particular friend of hers (and she his confidante), Wordsworth and Godwin others. Hazlitt described her as the only truly sensible woman he had met. Procter helped care for her, both as friend and in his capacity as member of the Metrpolitan Commission for Lunacy.
Marguerite Duras
Merleau-Ponty, Ponge, Blanchot, Bataille, Genet, Michaux, Leiris, Vian and Queneau regularly met at Duras’ flat to discuss literature; Bataille and Blanchot were among her lodgers, and Leiris a neighbour. Calder published her work and took her on a pioneering speaking tour of the U.K. with Robbe-Grillet and Sarraute. Foucault was a correspondent. She collaborated closely with Resnais on the making of ‘Hiroshima mon Amour.’ Moreau, a friend, met Lacan with her, and played the part of Duras in one of two films featuring her (Duras playing her own part in the other).
Marguerite Duras knew…
- Jean Genet
- Louis Althusser
- Raymond Queneau
- Michel Leiris
- Maurice Merleau-Ponty
- Maurice Blanchot
- Gaston Gallimard
- Nathalie Sarraute
- Alain Robbe-Grillet
- Michel Foucault
- Marcel Duhamel
- Madeleine Renaud
- John Calder
- Jeanne Moreau
- Jean-Paul Sartre
- Jacques Lacan
- Henri Michaux
- Georges Bataille
- Francis Ponge
- Boris Vian
- Alain Resnais
- Jorge Semprún
Marcel Bénabou
Perec, Queneau and Roubaud are or were all friends and colleagues in Oulipo.
Marcel Bénabou knew…
Luigi Pirandello
Pirandello is best known for one of the twentieth century’s key plays. One of Valéry’s extensive set of acquaintances, he was also friendly with Pound. The composer Casella and artist de Chirico were fellow-members of a Rome theatrical circle; Zweig corresponded with him about a German translation of his last play. An acrimonious debate with Croce about reflection in art was triggered by publication of an essay of Pirandello’s, about humour. Negotiations with Reinhardt to make a film based on a related idea to his most famous play (von Sternberg directing, Pirandello playing ‘the author’) foundered after Pirandello’s death.
Luigi Pirandello knew…
- Sergei Eisenstein
- Paul Valéry
- Alfredo Casella
- Stefan Zweig
- Max Reinhardt
- Ezra Pound
- Giorgio de Chirico
- Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
- Benedetto Croce
- Josephine Baker