• Co-founder with René Daumal of Le Grand Jeu literary and artistic movement (and magazine), which refused to merge with the Surrealists, thus rankling them • Addicted to opiates from a young age • In and out of jails and hospitals for much of adult life • Concerned with the Void, Wind, Death, Metaphysics • Delivered lecture on "The Metamorphoses of Poetry" at the Sorbonne • At age 26 published only full-length book, Life Love Death Void and Wind—largely ignored, though favorably reviewed by Antonin Artaud, who had also attended the Sorbonne lecture • Forbidden to marry Ruth Kronenberg by her father; seven years later Ruth is deported to Auschwitz from which she never returns • Dead at age 36 from tetanus contracted while shooting up morphine through his dirty pant leg
There's only one extant English language collection of his poetry (Black Mirror).
A new collection of some of his first-to-appear-in-English prose (The Book Is a Ghost) was just published this summer by micro press Solar Luxuriance.
Samples of his writings in both English and the original French are available on this site.
• Co-founder with René Daumal of Le Grand Jeu literary and artistic movement (and magazine), which refused to merge with the Surrealists, thus rankling them
• Addicted to opiates from a young age
• In and out of jails and hospitals for much of adult life
• Concerned with the Void, Wind, Death, Metaphysics
• Delivered lecture on "The Metamorphoses of Poetry" at the Sorbonne
• At age 26 published only full-length book, Life Love Death Void and Wind—largely ignored, though favorably reviewed by Antonin Artaud, who had also attended the Sorbonne lecture
• Forbidden to marry Ruth Kronenberg by her father; seven years later Ruth is deported to Auschwitz from which she never returns
• Dead at age 36 from tetanus contracted while shooting up morphine through his dirty pant leg
There's only one extant English language collection of his poetry (Black Mirror).
A new collection of some of his first-to-appear-in-English prose (The Book Is a Ghost) was just published this summer by micro press Solar Luxuriance.
Samples of his writings in both English and the original French are available on this site.