Pierre Oster (6 March 1933 – 22 October 2020) was a French poet and editor born into a Luxembourgish family. After his marriage to Angella Soussoueva in 1971, he often credited his wife in addition to himself on his works.

Biography

Oster studied at the Collège Sainte-Croix de Neuilly, the

Lycée Buffon The Lycée Buffon is a secondary school in the XVe arrondissement of Paris, bordered by boulevard Pasteur, the rue de Vaugirard and the rue de Staël. Its nearest métro station is Pasteur. It is named for Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffo ...

, the

Lycée Louis-le-Grand The Lycée Louis-le-Grand (), also referred to simply as Louis-le-Grand or by its acronym LLG, is a public Lycée (French secondary school, also known as sixth form college) located on rue Saint-Jacques in central Paris. It was founded in the ...

, and

Sciences Po , motto_lang = fr , mottoeng = Roots of the Future , type = Public university, Public research university''Grande école'' , established = , founder = Émile Boutmy , a ...

. His first poem, ''Premier poème'', was published by ''

Mercure de France The was originally a French gazette and literary magazine first published in the 17th century, but after several incarnations has evolved as a publisher, and is now part of the Éditions Gallimard publishing group. The gazette was published f ...

'' in 1954 thanks to support from

Pierre Jean Jouve Pierre Jean Jouve (11 October 1887 – 8 January 1976) was a French writer, novelist and poet.Michael Sheringham, 'Jouve, Pierre-Jean', ''Oxford Companion to French Literature''Onlineat answers.com He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literat ...

. ''Quatre Quatrains gnomiques'' was published in '' La Nouvelle Revure française'' thanks to

Marcel Arland Marcel Arland (5 July 1899, Terre-Natale, Varennes-sur-Amance, Haute-Marne – 12 January 1986, Haute-Marne) was a French novelist, literary critic, and journalist. Biography With René Crevel and Roger Vitrac he founded the dadaist newspa ...

and

Jean Paulhan 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 ...

. His first collective work, ''Le Champ de Mai'', was published in 1955 and won him the

Prix Fénéon The Fénéon Prize (''Prix Fénéon''), established in 1949, is awarded annually to a French-language writer and a visual artist no older than 35 years of age. The prize was established by Fanny Fénéon, the widow of French art critic Félix Fén� ...

. In 1958, he was awarded the

Prix Max-Jacob Prix was an American power pop band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1975 by Tommy Hoehn and Jon Tiven. The group ended up primarily as a studio project. Its recordings were produced by Tiven along with former Big Star member Chris Bell, who a ...

for ''Solitude de la lumière''. He then departed to serve in 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 ...

, returning to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

in 1959. In 1961, Jean Paulhan helped set up a meeting between Oster and

Saint-John Perse Alexis Leger (; 31 May 1887 – 20 September 1975), better known by his pseudonym Saint-John Perse (; also Saint-Leger Leger), was a French poet-diplomat, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1960 "for the soaring flight and evocative ...

, who gave him great poetic motivation. He worked with Claude Tchou, who helped Oster cover

Pascal Pia Pascal Pia (15 August 1903, Paris – 27 September 1979, Paris), born Pierre Durand, was a French writer, journalist, illustrator and scholar. He also used the pseudonyms Pascal Rose, Pascal Fely and others. In 1922 he published the erotic ...

and the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...

. Alongside Tchou and Jean-Claude Zylberstein, he published the first complete collection of Paulhan's works. In 1992, he was awarded the

Grand prix de poésie de la SGDL The grand prix de poésie de la SGDL is a French literary award created by the Société des gens de lettres in 1983 in order to reward an author for the whole of his work. This award is given to the winner during the spring session of the company. ...

. He contributed to the Babel collection, published by

Actes Sud Actes Sud is a French publishing house based in Arles. It was founded in 1978 by author Hubert Nyssen. By 2013, the company, then headed by Nyssen's daughter, Françoise Nyssen, had an annual turnover of 60 million euros and 60 staff members. ...

, while living in

Mazamet Mazamet (; Languedocien dialect, Languedocien: ''Masamet'') is a Communes of France, commune in the Tarn (department), Tarn Departments of France, department in southern France. It is the second-largest component of the Castres-Mazamet metropolit ...

. In June 2019, Oster was awarded the Grand Prix de Poésie of the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

. Pierre Oster died on 22 October 2020 at the age of 87.

Publications

*''Le Champ de mai'' (1955) *''Solitude de la lumière'' (1957) *''Un nom toujours nouveau'' (1960) *''La Grande Année'' (1964) *''Les Dieux'' (1970) *''Chiffres en ballade'' (1972) *''Requêtes'' (1977) *''Pratique de l'éloge'' (1977) *''Cérémonial de la réalité'' (1981) *''Rochers. Trente et unième poème'' (1982) *''Le Murmure'' (1982) *''Art poétique'' (1983) *''Vingt-neuvième poème'' (1985) *''Art poétique'' (1987) *''Les Vigneaux. Honneur à Dorothée Léger'' (1987) *''Dictionnaire de citations françaises'' (1987) *''L'Hiver s'amenuise'' (1990) *''L'Ordre du mouvement'' (1991) *''Requêtes'' (1992) *''Une Machine à indiquer l'univers'' (1992) *''Saint-John Perse'' (1992) *''Alchimie de la lenteur'' (1997) *''Le Savoir de la terre'' (1998) *''Membres épars des dieux'' (1999) *''Paysage du Tout 1951-2000'' (2000) *"Je la craignais" (2007) *''Pratique de l'éloge'' (2009) *''Vignettes russes'' (2010) *''Utinam varietur'' (2012) *''Les morts'' (2014)

References

French poets 1933 births 2020 deaths People from Val-de-Marne {{Improve categories, date=November 2020