Claude Pélieu (December 20, 1934 – December 24, 2002) was a French poet, translator and artist. He lived in France until 1963, when he moved to the United States, where he spent most of the rest on his life.

Biography

Pélieu was born to Pierre and Marguerite Pélieu on December 20, 1934, in a clinic in

Pontoise Pontoise () is a commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris, in the " new town" of Cergy-Pontoise. Administration Pontoise is the official ''préfecture'' (capital) of the Val-d'Oise ''dépa ...

Val d'Oise Val-d'Oise (, "Vale of the Oise") is a department in the Île-de-France region, Northern France. It was created in 1968 following the split of the Seine-et-Oise department. In 2019, Val-d'Oise had a population of 1,249,674.

, north of Paris. They lived in the village of Beauchamp, near Pontoise. After leaving school in 1952, Pélieu participated in a group show in Paris at the Galerie du Haut-Pavé at the centre Saint-Jacques, 8 rue Danton. Through the gallery's founder, priest Gilles Vallée, Pélieu met the future architect Henri Caubel who would later arrange retrospective shows of Pélieu's collages between 1999 and 2001. From 1952 to 1953, Pélieu worked at ''La Maison des amis des livres'', a bookstore founded by

Adrienne Monnier Adrienne Monnier (26 April 1892 – 19 June 1955) was a French bookseller, writer, and publisher, and an influential figure in the modernist writing scene in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s. Formative years Monnier was born in Paris on 26 April 18 ...

, a friend of

Sylvia Beach Sylvia may refer to: People *Sylvia (given name) *Sylvia (singer), American country music and country pop singer and songwriter *Sylvia Robinson, American singer, record producer, and record label executive *Sylvia Vrethammar, Swedish singer credi ...

, a second cousin of

Mary Beach Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

(Pélieu's second wife). Some of Pélieu's first texts were published in 1955 in ''

Le Libertaire ''Le Libertaire'' is a Francophone anarchist newspaper established in New York City in June 1858 by the exiled anarchist Joseph Déjacque. It appeared at slightly irregular intervals until February 1861. The title reappeared in Algiers in 1892 a ...

'', a political journal close to the

Lettrist Lettrism is a French avant-garde movement, established in Paris in the mid-1940s by Romanian immigrant Isidore Isou. In a body of work totaling hundreds of volumes, Isou and the Lettrists have applied their theories to all areas of art and culture ...

movement. At that time he was politically active in left-wing political groups. It was also around this time that Pélieu became interested in the poetry of

Jacques Prévert Jacques Prévert (; 4 February 1900 – 11 April 1977) was a French poet and screenwriter. His poems became and remain popular in the French-speaking world, particularly in schools. His best-regarded films formed part of the poetic realist moveme ...

but also in collage. He continued to draw assiduously, the sale of drawings provided a meager living. In 1956, he participated in a group show at the bookstore/gallery Le Soleil dans la Tête organized by the mother of Jean-Jacques Lévêque, Marguerite Fos. Following trouble with the police, Pélieu was drafted into the French army at the height of the

Algerian war The Algerian War, also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence,( ar, الثورة الجزائرية '; '' ber, Tagrawla Tadzayrit''; french: Guerre d'Algérie or ') and sometimes in Algeria as the War of 1 November ...

. Whilst in Algeria, his texts appeared in

Henri Chopin Henri Chopin (18 June 1922 – 3 January 2008) was a French avant-garde poet and musician. Life Henri Chopin was born in Paris, 18 June 1922, one of three brothers, and the son of an accountant. Both his siblings died during the war. One was sh ...

's poetry journal ''Cinquième Saison'' under the pseudonym Claude Lieu. He eventually poisoned himself by drinking stagnant water in order to be repatriated and discharged. After leaving hospital, on July 14, 1959, Pélieu met his first wife Lula Nash at a

ball A ball is a round object (usually spherical, but can sometimes be ovoid) with several uses. It is used in ball games, where the play of the game follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown by players. Balls can also be used f ...

on Rue du Vieux-Colombier. The couple had a passionate relationship often accompanied by hardship, as Pélieu's physical and mental health continued to suffer from his experiences in Algeria and an addiction to heroin. Pélieu and Nash married on May 11, 1960, and lived between Paris and the Ile-de-Ré. In Paris, Pélieu frequented

Jean-Jacques Lebel Jean-Jacques Lebel (born in Paris on June 30, 1936) is a French artist. His father was also a poet, translator, poetry publisher, political activist, art collector, and art historian. Besides his heterogeneous artworks and poetry, Lebel is also k ...

, lettrist and ''affichiste''

Raymond Hains Raymond Hains (9 November 1926 – 28 October 2005) was a prominent French visual artist and a founder of the Nouveau réalisme movement. In 1960, he signed, along with Arman, François Dufrêne, Yves Klein, Jean Tinguely, Jacques Villeg ...

. Pélieu met Mary Beach, a recently widowed American expat, in 1962, and one year later Pélieu and Lula separated. In November 1963, Pélieu left for San Francisco with Mary Beach and Beach's teenage daughter. Upon their arrival, they contacted

Lawrence Ferlinghetti Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti (March 24, 1919 – February 22, 2021) was an American poet, painter, social activist, and co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. The author of poetry, translations, fiction, theatre, art criticism, an ...

City Lights Bookstore City Lights is an independent bookstore-publisher combination in San Francisco, California, that specializes in world literature, the arts, and progressive politics. It also houses the nonprofit City Lights Foundation, which publishes selected tit ...

in the hope of translating

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...

's poetry and publishing Pélieu's work in English. In the United States, Pélieu lived between San Francisco and New York, with a nomadic existence that saw them travel extensively around the country. Pélieu's ''Automatic Pilot'' was published at the end of 1964 by

Ed Sanders Edward Sanders (born August 17, 1939) is an American poet, singer, activist, author, publisher and longtime member of the rock band the Fugs. He has been called a bridge between the Beat and hippie generations. Sanders is considered to have bee ...

' Fuck You Press in New York, having been translated from French into English by Beach. She also translated, in collaboration with Pélieu, several books by

William Burroughs William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist, widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular cultu ...

Bob Kaufman Robert Garnell Kaufman (April 18, 1925 – January 12, 1986) was an American Beat poet and surrealist as well as a jazz performance artist and satirist. In France, where his poetry had a large following, he was known as the "black American ...

and

. In 1966, Beach founded a publishing imprint, Beach Books, Texts and Documents, publishing not only writing by Pélieu but also facsimile manuscripts by leading beat writers, pamphlets, literary magazines and folios of collages. From 1965 onwards, Pélieu corresponded extensively with Burroughs, amongst others. He became increasingly interested in Burroughs'

cut-up The cut-up technique (or ''découpé'' in French) is an aleatory literary technique in which a written text is cut up and rearranged to create a new text. The concept can be traced to the Dadaists of the 1920s, but it was developed and popularized ...

technique, which he used extensively in book-length texts such as ''With revolvers aimed...finger bowls''. Pélieu's writing was also featured alongside that of Burroughs and Kaufman in a Cahier de l'Herne after he met Dominique de Roux. The years from 1969 to 1979 were particularly prolific for Pélieu in terms of publication, with a dozen or so books published through 1979, mostly by Bourgois and 10/18. He was also published by Fraçois di Dio's Soleil Noir, in editions that were accompanied by artworks by

Erró Erró (born Guðmundur Guðmundsson in 1932 in Ólafsvík, Iceland) is a visual artist and painter, who is best known for his painted pop art collages of images from comic books and advertisements.

and

Miguel Ortiz Berrocal Miguel Ortiz Berrocal ( Villanueva de Algaidas, Málaga, 28 September 1933 – Antequera, Málaga, 31 May 2006) was a Spanish figurative and abstract sculptor. He is best known for his puzzle sculptures, which can be disassembled into ma ...

. In 1970, Pélieu and Beach left the United States for southern England, where they spent a number of years between

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

. They returned to California in 1977 and later settled in upstate New York. Between 1979 and 2002, Pélieu devoted himself increasingly to

collage Collage (, from the french: coller, "to glue" or "to stick together";) is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole. ...

while continuing to write and publish episodically. At the end of the 1990s, several exhibits of his collages took place in France during a brief period when he and Beach returned to the country. His books continued to be published up until his death on December 24, 2002, in

Norwich, New York Norwich is a city and county seat of Chenango County, New York, United States. Surrounded on all sides by the Town of Norwich,. The name is taken from Norwich, England. Its population was 7,190 at the 2010 census. Lt. Warren Eaton Airport ...

Selected bibliography

French

* ''Cahier de l'Herne Burroughs/Pélieu/Kaufman'', L'Herne editions, Paris 1968. * ''Ce que dit la bouche d'ombre dans le bronze-étoile d'une tête (What The Shadow Mouth says in the bronze-star of a head)'', Le soleil noir editions, Paris 1969 * ''Le Journal Blanc du hasard (The White Journal of Chance)'', Bourgois editions, Paris 1969 * ''Embruns d'exils traduits du silence (Sprays of exile translated from silence)'', Bourgois editions, Paris 1971 * ''Jukeboxes'', 10/18 editions, Paris 1972 * ''Infra Noir (Below Black)'', with Erró & Thierry Agullo, Le Soleil noir editions, Paris 1972 * ''Tatouages mentholés et cartouches d'aube (Mint Tattoos and Dawn Cartridges)'', 10/18, Paris 1973 * ''Kali Yug Express'', Bourgois editions, Paris 1974 * ''Coca néon arc-en-ciel polaroid (Coca neon polaroid rainbow)'', Bourgois editions, Paris 1976 / Cherry Valley Editions * ''Dust Bowl Motel Poems'', Bourgois editions, Paris 1977 * ''Pommes bleues électriques (Blue Electric Apples)'', Bourgois editions, Paris 1979 * ''Trains de nuit (Night trains)'', Le Cherche Midi editions, Paris 1979 * ''Cartes postales USA (Postcards USA)'', Cééditions, Toulouse 1979. * ''Indigo Express'', Le Livre à venir editions, Paris 1986 * ''Koans & Haikus'', L'atelier de l'agneau editions, 1988 * ''La Rue est un rêve (The Street is a Dream)'', Le castor astral editions, Paris 1989 * ''Légende noire (Black Legend)'', Le Rocher editions, Monaco 1991 * ''Dear Laurie'', Cahiers de nuit editions, Caen 1996 * ''Et vous aurez raison d'avoir tort! (And you are right to be wrong!) (Texts 1971-1977)'', SUEL editions, Guarbecque 1996 * ''Studio Réalité (Reality Studio)'', Le castor astral editions, Paris 1999 * ''Art Into Thick Air, collages'', La Notonecte editions, Rennes 1999 * ''Soupe de lézard (Lizard Soup)'', La Digitale editions, Quimper 2000 * ''Boomerangs'', La Notonecte editions, Rennes 1999 (reissued in 2001) * ''Fusion'', Voix editions, 2001 * ''Starquake'', La Notonecte editions, Rennes 2001 * ''Anthologie introductive à l'oeuvre de Claude Pélieu (Introductory anthology to the work of Claude Pélieu)'', L'Arachnoide editions, 2003 * ''Je suis un cut-up vivant (I am a living cut-up)'', L'Arganier editions, Paris 2008 * ''Un amour de beatnik (A Beatnik Love)'', Non lieu editions, Paris 2012

English

* ''Automatic pilot'',

City Lights Books City Lights is an independent bookstore-publisher combination in San Francisco, California, that specializes in world literature, the arts, and progressive politics. It also houses the nonprofit City Lights Foundation, which publishes selected tit ...

, San Francisco 1964 * ''With Revolvers Aimed... Finger Bowls'', preface by William S. Burroughs, Beach Books Texts and documents, San Francisco, 1967 * ''So who owns death TV?'', collaboration with William S. Burroughs and Carl H. Weissner, Beach Texts Books, San Francisco 1967 * ''Swift Scripts, Notes, and After Effects'', Writers Forum, London 1967 * ''Opal USA'', Beach Books, 1968 * ''Blue Bangh!'', Expanded Media Editions, 1973 (with Mary Beach) German edition also issued same year * ''Coca Neon / Polaroid Rainbow'', Cherry Valley Editions, 1975 * ''Whistling Down the Wire'', Cherry Valley Editions, 1977 * ''Xerox Blues'', 1982 * ''Kali Yug Express'',

Bottle of Smoke Press A bottle is a narrow-necked container made of an impermeable material (such as glass, plastic or aluminium) in various shapes and sizes that stores and transports liquids. Its mouth, at the bottling line, can be sealed with an internal stopp ...

2012

German

* ''Mary Beach/Claude Pélieu, Collagen'', Verlag Peter Engstler, 2011 * ''Art Into Thick Air (collages, color version)'', Verlag Peter Engstler, 2011 * ''Kali Yug Express'', Verlag Peter Engstler, 2011 * ''Storgerausche vom Telegraphendraht (Whistling Down The Wire)'', Verlag Peter Engstler, 2011

References

* * * *Claude Pélieu, ''Un amour de beatnik Lettres à Lula-Nash 1963-1964'', ed. Benoit Delaune, Editions Non-Mieu, Paris, 2012.

External links

The Beach Plymell Collection - Mary Beach & Claude Pélieu Art

Finding aid to Beat poets and poetry collection at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pelieu, Claude 1934 births 2002 deaths Beat Generation poets French male poets 20th-century French poets 20th-century French male writers French military personnel of the Algerian War