Wallace Fowlie
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Wallace Fowlie (1908–1998) was an American writer and professor of literature. He was the
James B. Duke James Buchanan Duke (December 23, 1856 – October 10, 1925) was an American tobacco and electric power industrialist best known for the introduction of modern cigarette manufacture and marketing, and his involvement with Duke Universit ...
Professor of French Literature at
Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...
where he taught from 1964 to the end of his career. Although he published more than twenty books, he was devoted to teaching, particularly undergraduate courses in French, Italian, and modernist literature. Took his A.B. at
Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...
in 1930, then a Master's in 1933 and a Ph.D. in 1936, also at Harvard. Before coming to Duke in 1964, he taught at
Bennington College Bennington College is a private liberal arts college in Bennington, Vermont. Founded in 1932 as a women's college, it became co-educational in 1969. It claims to be the first college to include visual and performing arts as an equal partner in ...
,
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
, and
Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
. Fowlie was also noted for his correspondence with literary figures such as
Henry Miller Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American novelist. He broke with existing literary forms and developed a new type of semi-autobiographical novel that blended character study, social criticism, philosophical ref ...
,
René Char René Émile Char (; 14 June 1907 – 19 February 1988) was a French poet and member of the French Resistance. Biography Char was born in L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue in the Vaucluse department of France, the youngest of the four children of Emile ...
,
Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the su ...
,
André Gide André Paul Guillaume Gide (; 22 November 1869 – 19 February 1951) was a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (in 1947). Gide's career ranged from its beginnings in the Symbolism (arts), symbolist movement, to the advent o ...
,
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 ...
,
Marianne Moore Marianne Craig Moore (November 15, 1887 – February 5, 1972) was an American modernist poet, critic, translator, and editor. Her poetry is noted for formal innovation, precise diction, irony, and wit. Early life Moore was born in Kirkwood, ...
, and
Anaïs Nin Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell (February 11, 1903 – January 14, 1977; , ) was a French-born American diarist, essayist, novelist, and writer of short stories and erotica. Born to Cuban parents in France, Nin was the d ...
. He is best known for his translations of
Arthur Rimbaud Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud (, ; 20 October 1854 – 10 November 1891) was a French poet known for his transgressive and surreal themes and for his influence on modern literature and arts, prefiguring surrealism. Born in Charleville, he starte ...
, which were appreciated by a younger generation that included
Jim Morrison James Douglas Morrison (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971) was an American singer, poet and songwriter who was the lead vocalist of the Rock music, rock band the Doors. Due to his wild personality, poetic lyrics, distinctive voice, unpredicta ...
(whose work Fowlie also became a scholar of) and
Patti Smith Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter and author who became an influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album '' Horses''. Called the "punk poe ...
. In 1990, Fowlie consulted with director
Oliver Stone William Oliver Stone (born September 15, 1946) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Stone won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay as writer of '' Midnight Express'' (1978), and wrote the gangster film remake '' Sc ...
on the film ''The Doors''. Probably his best-known student is another writer and critic of French literature,
Roger Shattuck Roger Whitney Shattuck (August 20, 1923 in Manhattan, New York – December 8, 2005 in Lincoln, Vermont) was an American writer best known for his books on French literature, French art, art, and French classical music, music of the twentieth centu ...
.


Biography

Fowlie discovered French as a high school student in Brookline, Massachusetts. One of the influential events of his adolescence was a visit to Copley Plaza to attend a virtually incomprehensible lecture by
Paul Claudel Paul Claudel (; 6 August 1868 – 23 February 1955) was a French poet, dramatist and diplomat, and the younger brother of the sculptor Camille Claudel. He was most famous for his verse dramas, which often convey his devout Catholicism. Early lif ...
. Recalling the lecture in his memoir ''Journal of Rehearsals'', Fowlie wrote "I felt that a part of my destiny would be to study his poetry and to understand it in French as one, possessor of two languages, might do." In 1928, while in his third year at Harvard, Fowlie traveled to France for the first time. He stayed with the family of
Ernest Psichari Ernest Psichari (27 September 1883 – 22 August 1914) was a French author, religious thinker and soldier. The son of noted intellectual Ioannis Psycharis and grandson of liberal writer Ernest Renan, Psichari was baptised into the Greek Orthodox ...
in Paris, and later wrote his thesis on Psichari, a writer and religious thinker who had died in the first World War. By this time, he had also completed his first reading of Proust, which he described as " the most profound literary experience I have ever had." Over the course of his lifetime, Fowlie traveled to France many times and befriended writers such as Gide, Cocteau, St. John Perse (Leger), and
Jean Genet Jean Genet (; – ) was a French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. In his early life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but he later became a writer and playwright. His major works include the novels ''The Thief's ...
. At Harvard he attended the classes and lectures of
T.S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National B ...
. One day Eliot invited a small group of students to meet a friend of his. This 'friend' turned out to be the poet W.B. Yeats. On another occasion, Fowlie saw Eliot collapse with a violent thud in the Catholic chapel. He helped him up and led him back to his seat. He immediately recognized that Eliot had had a mystical experience. From the forties onward, Fowlie filled a vacuum in academia. There was room for a great teacher and explainer of significant modern French poets and writers in America and England. For several decades, Fowlie was the pre-eminent critic of French literature in America, something which earned him a
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was founded in 1925 by Olga and Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died on April 26, 1922. The organization awards Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been ...
fellowship in 1947. He published book after book on the great French writers he revered, including Mallarmé and Rimbaud. He was the first translator of Rimbaud in English: his ''Rimbaud, Complete Works, Selected Letters'' appeared in 1966. This work aligned him with his friend Henry Miller, whose work he championed, and brought Rimbaud to a new generation of fans — and with it the acknowledgment and gratitude of rock stars Patti Smith and Jim Morrison. Morrison wrote Fowlie a letter which he forgot about until his students played him the music of the Doors. He quickly recognized Rimbaud's influence in the lyrics. Then he remembered and retrieved the letter. As an octogenarian, he published ''Rimbaud and Jim Morrison: The Rebel As Poet''.


Works

* ''Age of Surrealism'' (1950) * ''André Gide: His Life and Art'' (1965) * ''Aubade: A Teacher's Notebook'' (1983) * ''Characters from Proust: Poems'' (1983) * ''Charles Baudelaire: Selected Poems from "Flowers of Evil"'' (1963) * ''Claudel (Studies in Modern European Literature and Thought)'' (1957) * ''Climate of Violence: The French Literary Tradition from Baudelaire to the Present'' (1967) * ''Clowns And Angels: Studies In Modern French Literature'' (1943) * ''The Clown's Grail: A Study of Love in Its Literary Expression'' (1947) * ''De Villon à Péguy'' (Editions de l'Arbre, Montreal, 1944) * ''Dionysus in Paris: A Guide to Contemporary French Theater'' (1960) * ''Ernest Psichari'' (Ernest Green & Co., New York, Toronto, 1939) * ''From Chartered Land'' (William R Scott, New York, 1938) * ''Jean Cocteau: The History of a Poet's Age'' (1966) * ''Journal of Rehearsals: A Memoir'' (1997) * ''Intervalles'' (A. Magne, Paris, 1939, published under pen name Michel Wallace) * ''La Pureté dans l'Art'' (Editions de l'Arbre, Montreal, 1941) * ''Lautréamont'' (Twayne, New York, 1973) * ''Letters of Henry Miller and Wallace Fowlie'' (1975) * ''Mallarmé'' (Dennis Dobson, London; University of Chicago, Chicago, 1953) * ''Matines et Vers'' (Paris, 1936; published under pen name Michel Wallace) * ''Memory: A Fourth Memoir'' (1990) * ''Poem and Symbol: A Brief History of French Symbolism'' (1990) * ''A Reading of Dante's Inferno'' (1981) * ''Rimbaud: Complete Works, Selected Letters'' (1966) . (Revised, 2005, ) * ''Rimbaud and Jim Morrison: The Rebel as Poet'' (1994) * ''Rimbaud's Illuminations, A Study in Angelism'' (1953) * ''Rimbaud, the Myth of Childhood'' (1946) * ''Sites: A Third Memoir'' (1986) * ''The Spirit of France: Studies in Modern French Literature'' (Sheed & Ward, London, 1945) * ''Stendhal'' (1969)


References

*
Wallace Fowlie obituary, ''Duke News''



Notes


External resources


"A Catholic Presence: Duke's Wallace Fowlie" by Stephen Martin

Wallace Fowlie Papers
Rubenstein Library, Duke University.



{{DEFAULTSORT:Fowlie, Wallace 1908 births 1998 deaths People from Brookline, Massachusetts Duke University faculty Harvard University alumni Scholars of French literature French–English translators 20th-century American translators Writers from Massachusetts 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers