John George Eugène Jolas (October 26, 1894 – May 26, 1952) was a writer, translator and

literary critic Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. ...

Early life

John George Eugène Jolas was born October 26, 1894, in Union Hill, New Jersey (what is today Union City, New Jersey). His parents, Eugène Pierre and Christine (née Ambach) had immigrated to the United States from the Rhine borderland area between France and Germany several years earlier. In 1897 the family later returned to

Forbach Forbach ( , , ; gsw, Fuerboch) is a commune in the French department of Moselle, northeastern French region of Grand Est. It is located on the German border approximately 15 minutes from the center of Saarbrücken, Germany, with which it const ...

in Elsass-Lothringen (today in French Lorraine), where Jolas grew up, and which had become part of Germany in 1871 following the Franco-Prussian War. In 1909, he moved on his own to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, where he learned English while attending DeWitt Clinton Evening High School and earning a modest living as a deliverer.

Career

After schooling, Jolas worked in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

as a newspaper journalist for the German-language '' Volksblatt und Freiheits-Freund'' and the English-language ''

Pittsburgh Sun The ''Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph'' was an evening daily newspaper published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1927 to 1960. Part of the Hearst newspaper chain, it competed with ''The Pittsburgh Press'' and the ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'' until bein ...

''. During 1925 and 1925, Jolas worked for the European edition of the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

in Paris'', first on the night desk, then as a reporter. Eventually, David Darrah prompted Jolas to take over the Tribune's literary page from Ford Madox Ford. He did so, and he authored the weekly column, "Rambles through Literary Paris." His work in that capacity allowed him to meet many of the famous and emerging writers of Paris, both French and expatriates alike. These connections would serve him well in his subsequent editorial work. Along with his wife Maria McDonald and

Elliot Paul Elliot Harold Paul (February 10, 1891 – April 7, 1958) was an American journalist and writer. Biography Paul was born in Linden, a part of Malden, Massachusetts, the son of Harold Henry Paul and Lucy Greenleaf Doucette. He graduated from Malden ...

, in 1927 he founded the influential Parisian literary magazine, '' transition''. In Paris, Eugene Jolas met

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the Modernism, modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important ...

and played a major part in encouraging and defending Joyce's 'Work in Progress' (which would later become '' Finnegans Wake''), a work which Jolas viewed as the perfect illustration to his manifesto, published in 1929 in ''transition''. The manifesto, sometimes referred to as the Revolution of the Word Manifesto, states, in particular, that 'the revolution in the English language is an accomplished fact', 'time is a tyranny to be abolished', 'the writer expresses, he does not communicate', and 'the plain reader be damned'. On many occasion, he used to write under the pseudonym 'Theo Rutra'. As a translator, he is perhaps best known for rendering Alfred Doblin's novel

Berlin Alexanderplatz ''Berlin Alexanderplatz'' () is a 1929 novel by Alfred Döblin. It is considered one of the most important and innovative works of the Weimar Republic. In a 2002 poll of 100 noted writers the book was named among the top 100 books of all time. ...

into English in 1931. In 1941, Jolas published something of a successor to ''transition'' in a volume entitled ''Vertical: A Yearbook for Romantic-Mystic Ascencions''. Jolas subsequently suspended his editing work to join the United States Office of War Information in 1942; he translated war news into French for Allied troops in North Africa as well as the French resistance. In 1945, Jolas went to Germany to help launch denazified newspapers in towns controlled by the allied forces. He was later named editor in chief of the Deutsche Allgemeine Nachrichten-Agentur (DANA, later renamed DENA), an organization established to teach American-style journalism as a means for replacing the Nazis' propaganda apparatus.

Published works

*''Secession in Astropolis'' (1929)

Black Sun Press The Black Sun Press was an English language press noted for publishing the early works of many modernist writers including Hart Crane, D. H. Lawrence, Archibald MacLeish, Ernest Hemingway, and Eugene Jolas. It enjoyed the greatest longevity amon ...

*''The Language of Night'' (1932), Servire Press *''I Have Seen Monsters and Angels'' *''Man from Babel'' (Yale University Press, 1998) *''Eugene Jolas: critical writings, 1924–1951'' (Northwestern University Press, 2009) *An essay on

in ''

Our Exagmination Round His Factification for Incamination of Work in Progress ''Our Exagmination Round His Factification for Incamination of Work in Progress'' is a 1929 collection of critical essays, and two letters, on the subject of James Joyce's book ''Finnegans Wake'', then being published in discrete sections under th ...

'' (1929), a collection on Joyce that also included contributions from

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and Tragicomedy, tr ...

Stuart Gilbert Arthur Stuart Ahluwalia Stronge Gilbert (25 October 1883 – 5 January 1969) was an English literary scholar and translator. Among his translations into English are works by Alexis de Tocqueville, Édouard Dujardin, André Malraux, Antoine d ...

Robert McAlmon Robert Menzies McAlmon (also used Robert M. McAlmon, as his signature name, March 9, 1895 – February 2, 1956) was an American writer, poet, and publisher. In the 1920s, he founded in Paris the publishing house, Contact Editions, where he publ ...

, William Carlos Williams.

References

External links

"Author Information: Eugene Jolas"
Internet Book List. *Perloff, Marjorie

University at Buffalo. *Rosenberg, Karen
"Celebrating the Spirit of the Avant-garde"
'' The Yale Herald''. *Kelly, Robert (January 3, 1999)
"Lost Man of the Lost Generation"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. * Eugène and Maria Jolas Papers. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. * Eugène and Maria Jolas Papers: Addition. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. {{DEFAULTSORT:Jolas, Eugene 1894 births 1952 deaths People from Union City, New Jersey American literary critics American magazine publishers (people) 20th-century American translators