Jean Paulhan | |
---|---|
Born | 2 December 1884 Nîmes, Gard, France |
Died | 9 October 1968 Paris, France | (aged 83)
Occupation | Teacher, translator |
Notable works | The Flowers of Tarbes, or Terror in Literature |
Partner | Anne Desclos |
Relatives | Frédéric Paulhan (father) |
Jean Paulhan (2 December 1884 – 9 October 1968) was a French writer, literary critic and publisher, director of the literary magazine Nouvelle Revue Française (NRF) from 1925 to 1940 and from 1946 to 1968. He was a member (Seat 6, 1963–68) of the Académie française. He was born in Nîmes (Gard) and died in Paris.
Paulhan's father was the philosopher Frédéric Paulhan[1]:11 and his mother was Jeanne Thérond. From 1908 to 1910 he worked as a teacher in Madagascar, and he later translated Malagasy poems, or Hainteny, into French.[2]
Paulhan's translations attracted the interest of Guillaume Apollinaire and Paul Éluard.[3]
He served as Jacques Rivière's secretary at the NRF, until 1925 when he succeeded him as the journal's editor.[1]:13 In 1935 he, Henri Michaux, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Groethuysen and others launched a similar but more luxuriously-produced journal Mesures, under the direction of Henry Church.[4]
One of his most famous works of literary criticism was The Flowers of Tarbes, or Terror in Literature (1941), a study of the nature of language in fiction.[5] Paulhan also wrote several autobiographical short stories; English translations of several appeared in the collection Progress in Love on the Slow Side.[6] During the Second World War, Paulhan was an early and active member of the French Resistance[2] and was arrested by the German Gestapo. After the war he founded Cahiers de la Pléiade and in 1953 re-launched La Nouvelle Revue Française.
Paulhan provoked controversy by opposing independence for Algeria, and supporting the French military during the Algerian War;[7] this resulted in a rift between Paulhan and his friend Maurice Blanchot.[8]
Author Anne Desclos revealed that she had written the novel Story of O as a series of love letters to her lover Paulhan,[9] who had admired the work of the Marquis de Sade.