Jean Lescure (14 September 1912 – 17 October 2005) was a French poet.

Biography

Lescure was born in

Asnières-sur-Seine Asnières-sur-Seine () is a Communes of France, commune in the Hauts-de-Seine Departments of France, department and Île-de-France Regions of France, region of north-central France. It lies on the left bank of the river Seine, some eight kilometr ...

. In 1938, he published his first plaquette of poems, "Le voyage immobile", and launched the review "Messages" (two issues in 1939: "

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...

" and "Metaphysics and poetry"). During the Occupation Lescure resumed editing "Messages" in 1942, printed in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, with

Paul Éluard Paul Éluard (), born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (; 14 December 1895 – 18 November 1952), was a French poet and one of the founders of the Surrealist movement. In 1916, he chose the name Paul Éluard, a matronymic borrowed from his maternal ...

Raymond Queneau Raymond Queneau (; 21 February 1903 – 25 October 1976) was a French novelist, poet, critic, editor and co-founder and president of Oulipo ('' Ouvroir de littérature potentielle''), notable for his wit and cynical humour. Biography Queneau wa ...

Michel Leiris Julien Michel Leiris (; 20 April 1901 in Paris – 30 September 1990 in Saint-Hilaire, Essonne) was a French surrealist writer and ethnographer. Part of the Surrealist group in Paris, Leiris became a key member of the College of Sociology with ...

Gaston Bachelard Gaston Bachelard (; ; 27 June 1884 – 16 October 1962) was a French philosopher. He made contributions in the fields of poetics and the philosophy of science. To the latter, he introduced the concepts of ''epistemological obstacle'' and '' epi ...

Georges Bataille Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataille (; ; 10 September 1897 – 9 July 1962) was a French philosopher and intellectual working in philosophy, literature, sociology, anthropology, and history of art. His writing, which included essays, novels, ...

, Jean Paulhan, Guillevic, André Frénaud. "Domaine français" (Messages 1943) was printed in

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

(

Louis Aragon Louis Aragon (, , 3 October 1897 – 24 December 1982) was a French poet who was one of the leading voices of the surrealist movement in France. He co-founded with André Breton and Philippe Soupault the surrealist review ''Littérature''. He wa ...

, Gaston Bachelard,

Albert Camus Albert Camus ( , ; ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, and journalist. He was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the second-youngest recipient in history. His work ...

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 ...

, Paul Éluard,

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 ...

, Michel Leiris,

François Mauriac François Charles Mauriac (, oc, Francés Carles Mauriac; 11 October 1885 – 1 September 1970) was a French novelist, dramatist, critic, poet, and journalist, a member of the'' Académie française'' (from 1933), and laureate of the Nobel Priz ...

Henri Michaux Henri Michaux (; 24 May 1899 – 19 October 1984) was a Belgian-born French poet, writer and painter. Michaux is renowned for his strange, highly original poetry and prose, and also for his art: the Paris Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim ...

Francis Ponge Francis Jean Gaston Alfred Ponge (; 27 March 1899 – 6 August 1988) was a French essayist and poet. Influenced by surrealism, he developed a form of prose poem, minutely examining everyday objects. He was the third recipient of the Neustadt Inter ...

Romain Rolland Romain Rolland (; 29 January 1866 – 30 December 1944) was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and Mysticism, mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915 "as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary pro ...

, Raymond Queneau,

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and litera ...

Paul Valéry Ambroise Paul Toussaint Jules Valéry (; 30 October 1871 – 20 July 1945) was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher. In addition to his poetry and fiction (drama and dialogues), his interests included aphorisms on art, history, letters, mus ...

). Jean Lescure became co-director of the clandestine review "Les Lettres françaises" and was one of the founders of the underground organization, the "Comité National des Ecrivains". After the Liberation he was appointed director of the French Radio. He was an early member of

Oulipo Oulipo (, short for french: Ouvroir de littérature potentielle; roughly translated: ''"workshop of potential literature"'', stylized ''OuLiPo'') is a loose gathering of (mainly) French-speaking writers and mathematicians who seek to create works ...

. Lescure translated Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure" (1949) and the complete works of

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(1953). He wrote introductions to the work of many French artists ( Bertholle, Chastel, Estève, Gischia, Lapicque, Pignon, Prassinos, Singier, Ubac) and essays on the philosopher Gaston Bachelard and

André Malraux Georges André Malraux ( , ; 3 November 1901 – 23 November 1976) was a French novelist, art theorist, and minister of cultural affairs. Malraux's novel ''La Condition Humaine'' (Man's Fate) (1933) won the Prix Goncourt. He was appointed by P ...

. He died, aged 93, in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Selected bibliography

Poems

*''Le Voyage immobile'', Jean Flory, Paris, 1936. *''Une anatomie du secret'', Ides et Calendes, Neuchâtel et Paris, 1946. *''Les Falaises de Taormina'', Np., Limoges, 1949. *''La Plaie ne se ferme pas'', Charlot, Paris, 1949. *''Treize poèmes'', Gallimard, Paris, 1960. *''Noires compagnes de mes murs'', Florentin Mouret, Avignon, 1961. *''Drailles'', Gallimard, Paris, 1968. *''Itinéraires de la nuit'', Clancier-Guénaud, Paris, 1982. *''Il Trionfo della morte'', Clancier-Guénaud, Paris, 1984. *''La Belle Jardinière'', Clancier-Guénaud, Paris, 1988. *''Le Satyre est con'', Editions Proverbe, Marchainville, 1998. *''Gnomides'', Editions Proverbe, Marchainville, 1999. *''Journal de la Boue'', Editions Proverbe, Marchainville, 2001. *''Feuilles de tremble'', Editions Proverbe, Marchainville, 2001. *''Poèmes métaphysiques (1938–1946)'', Editions Proverbe, Marchainville, 2002.

Essays

*''Exercice de la pureté'', Messages 1942, III, Paris, 1942. *''Charles Lapicque'', Flammarion, Paris, 1956. *''Dessins de Charles Lapicque, La mer'', Editions Galanis, Paris, 1964. *''Images d’images'', Editions Galanis, Paris, 1964. *''D’une obscure clarté,

Jean Bertholle Jean Bertholle (26 June 1909, Dijon Dijon (, , ) (dated) * it, Digione * la, Diviō or * lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune ...

'', Villand et Galanis, Paris, 1966. *''Un été avec Bachelard'', Luneau Ascot éditeurs, Paris, 1983. *''Album Malraux'', Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Gallimard, Paris, 1986. *''Bachelard aujourd'hui, présenté par Jean Lescure'', Clancier-Guénaud, Paris, 1986. *''Gischia ou les raisons de la couleur'', Éditions de l'Orycte, Paris, 1987. *''Gustave Singier, Canicule à Patmos'', Guitardes et Galerie Arnoux, Paris, 1988. *''Le Même est toujours un autre, Georges Dayez'', Editions Jean-Pierre Joubert, Paris, 1991. *''Poésie et Liberté, Histoire de "Messages", 1939-1946'', Editions de l’IMEC, Paris, 1998. *''En écoutant Fautrier'', L'Echoppe, Paris, 1998. *''Benjamin Fondane, Le gouffre et le mur'', Editions Proverbe, Marchainville, 1999. *''Léon Gischia, Sketchbook'', Editions Proverbe, Marchainville, 2000. *''André Malraux, Pour une antibiographie'', Éditions de l'Orycte, Paris, 2004. *''Mario Prassinos'', Éditions de l'Orycte, hors commerce, Paris, 2005.

Sources

*Jean Lescure, ''Poésie et Liberté, Histoire de "Messages", 1939-1946'', Editions de l' Institut mémoires de l'édition contemporaine (IMEC), Paris, 1998. *Michel-Georges Bernard, ''Jean Lescure'', "Dictionnaire de Poésie de Baudelaire à nos jours",

Presses Universitaires de France Presses universitaires de France (PUF, English: ''University Press of France''), founded in 1921 by Paul Angoulvent (1899–1976), is the largest French university publishing house. Recent company history The financial and legal structure ...

, Paris, 2001. *Michel-Georges Bernard, ''Jean Lescure ou Les matins de la parole'', "Poésie/première", n° 29, Editions Editinter, Soisy-sur-Seine, juillet-octobre 2004. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lescure, Jean People from Asnières-sur-Seine 1912 births 2005 deaths Oulipo members Pataphysicians French male poets 20th-century French poets Prix Valery Larbaud winners 20th-century French male writers