Haunted House
Published on 30. April 2015
Book
Paperback/Softback
72 pages
978-1-78410-113-8 (ISBN)
Description
Pierre Reverdy's surrealistic tale Maison hantee was written in 1928 and first published in 1930. Andre Breton would later include it in a list of the ten books he would most like to take to a desert island. John Ashbery's translation of this modern classic is part of his lifelong engagement with French literature - an engagement that has vitally informed his own work in poetry, literature and the arts.
More details
Person
Pierre Reverdy was born in Narbonne, France, in 1889. After studying in Toulouse he moved to Paris in 1910, where he met Picasso, Matisse and Juan Gris. He edited the magazine Nord- Sud, which published the early work of Andre Breton, Louis Aragon and other Surrealists. In 1926 Reverdy moved to the small town of Solsmes, where he lived until his death in 1960. John Ashbery is the author of more than twenty books of poetry, most recently Quick Question (January 2013). He is the recipient of many honours, including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and a MacArthur 'genius' award. Born in Rochester, New York, he was educated at Harvard and Columbia. In 1955 he went to France on a Fulbright Scholarship and spent much of the next decade there, including several years as art critic of the International Herald Tribune and Paris correspondent of ArtNews magazine. Ashbery's research on the life and works of Raymond Roussel (1877-1933) resulted in several groundbreaking articles, as well as the appearance in print of the first unpublished work of the writer to come to light after his death. His translations include works by Roussel, Max Jacob, Pierre Reverdy, Stephane Mallarme, Andre Breton, Paul Eluard and many others. His 2008 translation of Pierre Martory's The Landscapist was a Poetry Book Society Recommended Translation. The French government has appointed Ashbery as both Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres and Officier of the Legion d'Honneur.