René Daumal (; 16 March 1908 – 21 May 1944) was a French
spiritual para-
surrealist
Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...
writer,
critic
A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as Art criticism, art, Literary criticism, literature, Music journalism, music, Film criticism, cinema, Theater criticism, theater, Fas ...
and
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...
, best known for his posthumously published novel ''
Mount Analogue'' (1952) as well as for being an early, outspoken practitioner of
pataphysics.
Biography
Daumal was born in
Boulzicourt,
Ardennes, France.
In his late teens his
avant-garde
In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...
poetry was published in France's leading journals.
As an adolescent, Daumal co-founded the art group ''Les Phrères Simplistes'' with the poets
Roger Gilbert-Lecomte and
Roger Vailland. They would later co-found the literary journal ''Le Grand Jeu'', which published three issues between 1928 and 1930.
Although courted by
André Breton
André Robert Breton (; ; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') ...
, the journal was founded as a counter to
Surrealism
Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...
and
Dada
Dada () or Dadaism was an anti-establishment art movement that developed in 1915 in the context of the Great War and the earlier anti-art movement. Early centers for dadaism included Zürich and Berlin. Within a few years, the movement had s ...
; the Surrealists reacted to its publication with some hostility.
He is best known in the English-speaking world for two novels: ''
A Night of Serious Drinking'', and the
allegorical novel ''
Mount Analogue: A Novel of Symbolically Authentic Non-Euclidean Adventures in Mountain Climbing'', both based upon his friendship with Alexander de Salzmann, a pupil of
G. I. Gurdjieff.
Daumal was
self-taught in the
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
language and translated some of the
Tripitaka Buddhist
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
canon into the French language, as well as translating the literature of the Japanese
Zen
Zen (; from Chinese: ''Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka phil ...
scholar
D.T. Suzuki into French.
He married the Bulgarian émigré Vera Milanova, the former wife of the poet Hendrik Kramer; after Daumal's death, she married the landscape architect
Russell Page
Montague Russell Page OBE (1 November 1906 – 4 January 1985) was a British gardener, garden designer and landscape architecture, landscape architect. He worked in the UK, western Europe and the United States of America.
Biography
Montague ...
.
Death
Daumal's sudden and premature death from
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
on 21 May 1944 in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
may have been hastened by youthful experiments with drugs and psychoactive chemicals, including
carbon tetrachloride
Carbon tetrachloride, also known by many other names (such as carbon tet for short and tetrachloromethane, also IUPAC nomenclature of inorganic chemistry, recognised by the IUPAC), is a chemical compound with the chemical formula CCl4. It is a n ...
. He died leaving his novel ''Mount Analogue'' unfinished, having worked on it until the day of his death.
He is buried at
Cimetière parisien de Pantin in
Pantin, a municipality just outside Paris.
Legacy
The motion picture
''The Holy Mountain'' by
Alejandro Jodorowsky
Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky (; born 17 February 1929) is a Chilean and French Experimental film, avant-garde filmmaker. Known for his films ''El Topo'' (1970), ''The Holy Mountain (1973 film), The Holy Mountain'' (1973) and ''Santa Sangre'' ...
is based largely on Daumal's ''Mount Analogue''.
Bibliography
Works by René Daumal in English translation
*''Le Contre-Ciel (Le contre-ciel)'', Woodstock, New York: Overlook Press, 2005.
*''Le Contre-Ciel: The Anti-Heaven, Part One'', Black River Falls, Wisconsin, 2002. transl. and with an introduction by Jordan Jones.
*''Le Contre-Ciel: The Anti-Heaven, Parts Two and Three'', Black River Falls, Wisconsin, 2003. transl. Jordan Jones.
*''A Fundamental Experiment'', New York / Madras: Hanuman Books, 1987; first published: René Daumal, "A Fundamental Experiment",
X magazine, Vol. I, No. I (November 1959).
*''The Lie of the Truth and Other Parables from the Way of Liberation'', New York / Madras: Hanuman Books, 1989.
*''
Mount Analogue (Le mont analogue)'', Woodstock, New York: Overlook Press, 2004.
*''Mugle and the Silk (Mugle; La soie)'', New York,
Edwin Mellen Press, 1997.
*''
A Night of Serious Drinking (La grande beuverie)'', Woodstock, New York: Overlook Press, 2003.
*''
Pataphysical Essays'', Cambridge: Wakefield Press, 2012.
*''The Powers of the Word (1927–1943) (Les pouvoirs de la parole)'', San Francisco: City Lights, 1991.
*'Rasa or Knowledge of the Self' Essays on Indian Aesthetics and Selected Sanskrit Studies. New York: New Directions, 1982.* ed. Claudio Rugafiori, transl. Louise Landes Levi, Repr. Kathamndu, Nepal, Shivastan, 2002 & 2006 (each edition 333 copies).
*''You've Always Been Wrong (Tu t'es toujours trompé)'', Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995. transl. Thomas Vosteen.
*''René Daumal, Letters on the Search for Awakening, 1930–1944'', Toronto: Dolmen Meadow Editions, 2010. transl. Gabriela Ansari and Roger Lipsey, with an introduction by Roger Lipsey.
References
Further reading
*Phil Powrie, ''René Daumal and Roger Gilbert-Lecomte: A bibliography'', London: Grant & Cutler, 1988.
*Kathleen Ferrick Rosenblatt,
René Daumal: The Life and Work of a Mystic Guide', New York: Suny Press, 1999.
External links
Gurdjeiff International Review
''Skin of Light'' and ''Last Letter to his Wife''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Daumal, Rene
1908 births
1944 deaths
People from Ardennes (department)
20th-century deaths from tuberculosis
French surrealist writers
Tuberculosis deaths in France
Pataphysicians
Translators to French
20th-century French translators
20th-century French novelists
20th-century French poets
French male poets
French male novelists
20th-century French male writers
French male non-fiction writers
Students of George Gurdjieff