Jean Cassou
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Jean Cassou (9 July 1897 – 15 January 1986) was a French writer, art critic, poet, member of the French Resistance during World War II and the first Director of the Musée national d'Art moderne in Paris.
Biography
Jean Cassou was born at
His father, who had the prestigious degree Ingénieur des Arts et Manufactures, died when Jean was only sixteen. His mother gave Jean and his sister basic Spanish culture, and he learnt French and Spanish classics side by side at school. Jean did secondary studies at the Lycée Charlemagne while providing for the needs of his family, then began study for the Licence d'espagnol (Spanish) degree at the Faculty of Letters in Paris. This he followed in 1917 and 1918 by getting a master's degree at the Bayonne Lycée and, though interrupted many times, was not mobilised in World War I. He was Secretary to Pierre Louÿs, writing from 1921 to 1929 his monthly chronicle "Spanish Letters" in the cultural magazine Le Mercure de France (of which he was editor). He became in 1923 the writer for the Ministry of State Education and in 1926 published his first novel.
In 1932 Jean Cassou became an inspector of historic monuments. In 1934 he became a member of the Vigilance Committee of anti-fascist intellectuals and director from 1936 of the review
Relieved of his post in September 1940, after only several weeks, as first Chief Conservator of the
Freed after a year in prison, he was sent by the
In 1945 Jean Cassou regained his post as Director of the National Museum of Modern Art, a post he kept until 1965. In 1971 he received the
Composer Henri Dutilleux set four of his poems to music between 1944 and 1956 (La Geôle, Il n'y avait que des troncs déchirés, J'ai rêvé que je vous portais entre mes bras, Eloignez-vous).
Works
Novels
- Éloge de la Folie, 1925
- Les harmonies viennoises, Paris, Émile Paul, 1926
- Les inconnus dans la cave, Paris, Gallimard, 1933
- Les massacres de Paris, Paris, Gallimard, 1935
- La clef des songes, 1928
- Comme une grande image, Editions Emile-Paul frères, 1931
- Le centre du monde, Paris, Le Sagittaire, 1945
- Le Temps d'aimer, Paris, Albin Michel, 1959; Paru en septembre 1958 dans la revue de Paris sous le titre Les Questions rétrospectives
- Dernières pensées d'un amoureux, Paris, Albin Michel, 1962
- Le voisinage des cavernes, Paris, Albin Michel, 1971
Essays
- Les nuits de Musset, Paris, Émile Paul, 1931
- Grandeur et infamie de Tolstoï, Paris, Bernard Grasset, 1932
- Pour la poésie, Paris, Corréa, 1935
- Quarante-huit, Paris, Gallimard, 1939
- La mémoire courte, Paris, Éditions de Minuit, 1954; repub. Mille et une Nuits, 2001
- Parti pris, Paris, Albin Michel, 1961
- La création des mondes, Paris, Éditions Ouvrières, 1971
- Une vie pour la liberté, Paris, Robert Laffont, 1981
Art criticism
- Situation de l'Art Moderne, Paris, Éditions de Minuit, 1950
- Panorama des Arts Plastiques contemporains, Paris, Gallimard, 1960
- Sir Herbert Readand Jean Cassou, 1971
- The Concise Encyclopedia of Symbolism. Chartwell Books, Inc., Secaucus, New Jersey, 292 pp. (1979) ISBN 0-89009-706-2(English edition, translated by Susie Sanders)
Poetry
- Trente-trois sonnets composés au secret, Paris, Éditions de Minuit, 1944; repub. Poésie/Gallimard, 1995
- La rose et le vin
- La folie d'Amadis
Other
- Ford, Ford Madox, ed. (January 1924). "Concorde". The Transatlantic Review. 1 (1). London: Duckworth & Co.: 53–58.[1]
- La vie de Philippe II. Paris. Gallimard. 1929. 12. Ed. (Orig. 1927. Vies des hommes, illustrated. No. 29 )
- Panorama de la littérature espagnole contemporaine, Paris, Kra, 1929 (later edition 1931)
- Tempête sur l'Espagne, Paris, L'Homme réel, 1936
- La querelle du réalisme, Paris, ESI, 1936
- Cervantes, Paris, ESI, 1936
- Légion, Paris, Gallimard, 1939
- L'heure du choix (collection), Paris, Éditions de Minuit, 1947
- Le quarante-huitard, Paris, PUF, 1948
- La voie libre, Paris, Flammarion, 1951
Translations and adaptations by Cassou
- L'Agonie du Christianisme, translated from an essay by Miguel de Unamuno, Paris, F. Rieder, 1925
- Font au Cabres, dramatic fresco in three acts by Lope de Vega, Paris, Les Ordres de Chevalerie, 1949, with Jean Camp, lithographs by Carlos Fontsere
Translations of Cassou into English
- Chagall, 'The World of Art Library' series. Thames & Hudson, UK 1965
- 33 Sonnets of the Resistance and other poems, Timothy Adès, Arc Publications, UK 2002
- The Madness of Amadis and other poems, Timothy Adès, Agenda Editions, UK 2009
References
- ^ Poli, Bernard J. (1967). Ford Madox Ford and the Transatlantic Review. Syracuse University Press. p. 51.
- Biography of Jean Cassou on the site of the Ordre de la Libération
- Cassou, Jean, Une vie pour la liberté, Paris, Robert Laffont, 1981
- Cassou, Jean, La mémoire courte, Paris, Editions Mille et Une Nuits, 2001
- Humbert, Agnès (tr. Barbara Mellor), Résistance: Memoirs of Occupied France, London, Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2008 ISBN 978-0-7475-9597-7(American title: Resistance: A Frenchwoman's Journal of the War, Bloomsbury, USA, 2008)